Rebekah Vardy ordered to pay £1,500,000 towards Coleen Rooney’s legal costs after Wagatha Christie trial-Louise Griffin-Entertainment – Metro

Rebekah Vardy lost the defamation case against Coleen Rooney (Picture: Getty)

Rebekah Vardy has been ordered to pay £1.5million towards Coleen Rooney’s legal costs after the Wagatha Christie defamation trial.

Vardy, who lost the trial, must start with a payment of £800,000 by next month, it was ruled today in court.

The legal battle between the pair came after Rooney accused Vardy of leaking ‘false stories’ about her private life in October 2019 following a months-long ‘sting operation’ which saw Rooney dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’. Vardy vehemently denied the claims and sued for libel.

In her ruling, Justice Steyn said it was ‘likely’ that Vardy’s agent at the time, Caroline Watt, ‘undertook the direct act’ of passing the information to The Sun.

But she added: ‘Nonetheless, the evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behaviour, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt.’

The judge said: ‘In my judgment, the conclusions that I have reached as to the extent to which the claimant engaged in disclosing to The Sun information to which she only had access as a permitted follower of an Instagram account which she knew, and Mrs Rooney repeatedly asserted, was private, suffice to show the single meaning is substantially true.’

Vardy always denied the claims (Picture: PA)

Responding to the verdict at the time, Rooney celebrated the result, saying: ‘Naturally, I am pleased that the judge has found in my favour with her judgment today.

‘It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others.’

Vardy later released her own statement, saying that she is ‘extremely sad and disappointed’ following the verdict.

Rooney won the trial (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage)

‘It is not the result that I had expected, nor believe was just. I brought this action to vindicate my reputation and am devastated by the judge’s finding.’

She added: ‘The judge accepted that publication of Coleen’s post was not in the “public interest” and she also rejected her claim that I was the “Secret Wag”. But as for the rest of her judgement, she got it wrong and this is something I cannot accept.’

Vardy issued a plea to those who have subjected her to abuse to stop, and indicated she does not intend to appeal against the ruling, saying ‘the case is over’.

She continued: ‘As I explained in my evidence I, my family, and even my unborn baby, were subjected to disgusting messages and vile abuse following Coleen’s Post and these have continued even during the course of the trial.

‘Please can the people who have been abusing me and my family now stop. The case is over.’

More to come.

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