Rebekah Vardy ordered to pay Coleen Rooney extra £100k in Wagatha Christie battle

Legal teams for both women have returned to court

Rebekah Vardy has been ordered to pay Coleen Rooney an extra £100,000 following their infamous Wagatha Christie battle. Barristers for the two WAGs have returned to court in a dispute over legal costs.

It comes after Rebekah - married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy - lost her High Court libel claim against Coleen in 2022. Coleen had accused Rebekah of leaking private information from social media to the press.

She revealed on social media how she forged an elaborate plan to work out the source of the leaks and named Rebekah's account as the culprit. Today (Wednesday, October 9), marks five years since her post went viral.

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Rebekah was ordered to pay 90 per cent of Coleen's fees, with an initial payment of £800,000, after losing the court bid. Now, senior costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker has ordered her to pay a further £100,000 to Coleen within 21 days.

He said: "I think there is some scope for a further payment on account so the defendant [Coleen] is not kept out of her costs, and I think that should be no more than £100,000."

Legal teams for the women returned to court on Monday (October 7). Rebekah's legal team accused Coleen lawyers of 'deliberately deceiving' the High Court over the £1.8 million it is said she owes.

The latest hearing in London was told this amount was more than three times her 'agreed costs budget of £540,779.07'. Rebekah's laywer Jamie Carpenter KC said the costs were 'disproportionate' and 'deliberately understating' the figure amounted to 'serious misconduct'.

But Rebekah lost her bid to get the court bill slashed, with a judge ruling that Coleen's lawyers did not commit misconduct. The hearing has dealt with several preliminary issues before a full 'line-by-line' assessment of costs will take place at a later date.

This will decide the overall amount of money to be paid. Judge Gordon-Saker said this could take place in early 2025, but added: "The parties need to get on with this and put it behind them."

He said: "Realistically, it (the line-by-line assessment) is probably going to be next year, hopefully early next year." Coleen - who is married to former England star Wayne Rooney - and Rebekah have not attended the hearing.

In 2019, Coleen publicly claimed Rebekah's account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile - her travelling to Mexico for a 'gender selection' procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.

Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Coleen's favour in July 2022, finding her post was 'substantially true' and that it was 'likely' Rebekah's agent, Caroline Watt had passed information to The Sun. She said Rebekah 'knew of and condoned this behaviour'.