Becky Vardy ordered to pay Coleen Rooney £1.5m after losing Wagatha battle – with £800,000 due in weeks | The Sun

REBEKAH Vardy has today sensationally been ordered to pay Coleen Rooney £1.5million after losing their Wagatha Christie legal battle.

The Wag must fork out £800,000 of that settlement by November 15 – months after the pair's head-to-head libel showdown.


Coleen accused Vardy of leaking stories to the press in an infamous Twitter post ending: "It's… Rebekah Vardy's account."

Becky, who is married to footballer Jamie, was savaged by a judge after Coleen won the landmark libel case – bringing an end to the three-year saga.

And now, Judge Mrs Justice Steyn has ordered Rebekah to foot 90 per cent of Coleen's costs.

This amounts to £1.5million of the Wag's final figure of £1,667,860.

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The judge also said £800,000 of these costs had to be paid by 4pm on November 15.

A written judgment said: "In my judgment, a reasonable sum on account, doing the best I can to estimate the likely level of recovery subject to an appropriate margin to allow for error in the estimation, and bearing in mind that at this stage the Defendant has not produced a bill of costs, is £800,000."

The Sun earlier revealed how Coleen doubled her court costs bill after winning the battle – incurring an eye-watering bill of £2million.

But as £350,000 of this had already been racked up before the trial in May, the final figure was instead given as £1,667,860.

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Today's figure is on top of Rebekah's own legal costs, which are believed to be around the same amount.

It comes after Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in July that Coleen's viral "reveal" post was "substantially true" and in the public interest.

She also said Rebekah "knew of, condoned and was actively engaged" in leaks to the media by her agent Caroline Watts.

The judge found Rebekah "deliberately withheld evidence" during the trial and that the deletion of WhatsApp messages central to the case was "deliberate rather than accidental".

She also believed Miss Watt declined to give evidence as she "knew that to a large extent the evidence in her statements was untrue."

Mrs Justice Steyn also said Rebekah's testimony was "manifestly inconsistent" with other evidence on "many occasions".

Rebekah was "generally unwilling to make factual concessions" while on the stand, the judgment read.

In comparison, the judge said Coleen was an "honest and reliable witness" who gave "clear and compelling" evidence.

Rebekah said she was "disappointed" following the result.

Coleen revealed she was "pleased" with the ruling but "never believed" the case 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".

She told how she was left with "no alternative" but to go through with the case to "defend" herself and end the leaking of stories.

She added: "Both before and after my social media posts in October 2019, I made every effort to avoid the need for such a drawn out and public court case. All my attempts to do so were knocked back by Mrs (Rebekah) Vardy.

"These leaks from my private Instagram account began in 2017. They continued for almost two years, intruding on my privacy and that of my family.

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"Although I bear Mrs Vardy no ill-will, today's judgment makes clear that I was right in what I said in my posts of October 2019.

"Finally, I would like to thank all of my legal team, my family, friends and everyone who supported me, including the public, through this difficult and stressful time."



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