The Wagatha Christie case involving Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney is set to return to court for a hearing over legal costs. Vardy, 42, lost her high-profile libel claim against fellow media star Rooney, 38, in July 2022 when Justice Steyn ruled that Rooney’s viral social media post accusing Vardy of leaking her private information to the press was ‘substantially true’. In an order from October 2022, the judge ruled that Vardy should pay 90% of Rooney’s costs .
Rooney, the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney , incurred total costs of more than £2 million but £350,000 of those had been racked up before the trial in May. Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy , was ordered to pay £800,000 of the bill that November. However, this was not the total sum spent on the proceedings and the case is set to return to the High Court in London for a hearing before a specialist costs judge.
These judges assess the costs and expenses incurred during civil cases and rule on how much successful parties can recover, and can reduce the costs if needed or if they are deemed to be unreasonable. The hearing on Tuesday before Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker is due to begin at 10.30am.
In the viral social media post in October 2019 at the heart of the libel claim, Rooney said she had carried out a months-long ‘sting operation’ and accused Mrs Vardy of leaking information about her private life to the press. Rooney publicly claimed Vardy’s a.