Vardy’s £900k legal budget branded ‘grotesque’
REBEKAH Vardy’s £900,000 budget for her libel battle with Coleen Rooney is “grotesque”, the High Court has heard.
Mrs Rooney (34) accused Mrs Vardy (39) of leaking “false stories” about her private life in October 2019, after carrying out a months-long “sting operation”, which saw her dubbed “Wagatha Christie”.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney claimed fellow footballer’s wife Mrs Vardy shared fake stories she had posted on her personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper.
Mrs Rooney said she planted three stories, about her travelling to Mexico to “see what this gender selection is all about”, returning to TV, and the basement flooding in her new house.
She then wrote on Instagram and Twitter: “For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my personal Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories.
“I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s ................ Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for damages for libel.
At a brief preliminary hearing yesterday, Mrs Rooney’s barrister John Samson asked the court to “reject the claimant’s cost budget and ask them to review it because, in the words of my lay client, it is grotesque”.
Mr Samson told Judge Roger Eastman that the sums involved were “huge”, telling the court that “the claimant’s budget to date, including incurred costs, is double that of the defendant”.
In written submissions, Mrs Vardy’s barrister Sara Mansoori said Mrs Vardy’s overall budget was “£897,000, the estimated costs of which are £465,842.
“This compares to Mrs Rooney’s estimated costs in her cost budget of £402,312.”
Ms Mansoori said her client’s £897,000 budget “reflects the complexity, scope and scale of the legal and factual issues”.
The judge said both Mrs Vardy and Mrs Rooney’s legal budgets were “extraordinarily large” and asked them to try to settle the case. He gave the parties until June to file revised cost budgets.
An attempt at mediation, to try to resolve the case without a trial, took place earlier this year.