The Coleen vs Becky battle continues – with a shock new twist
And Coleen now has to pay her rival £23k in costs
She’s always been adamant she’s done nothing wrong, and last week, Rebekah Vardy took an early lead in her war with fellow WAG Coleen Rooney, after a judge ruled in her favour at the start of their high-profile libel battle. Following a preliminary hearing in which their respective lawyers argued their cases, Mr Justice Warby agreed with Becky that Coleen had accused her directly of leaking stories in her infamous social media post in October 2019. Coleen will now have to prove that it was Becky alone who was leaking stories about her, rather than anyone who had access to her account, to try and win the £1million libel case against her.
“This was – on its face – a considered post, using wording composed with some care,” Mr Warby said. “It would be clear to the ordinary reader from the outset that it was meant seriously, and intended to convey a message of some importance. It tells a story. The story is one of careful investigation and builds to
a revelation. The reader would pay more attention to this story than they might to a more obviously casual tweet or post. The reader is told straight away that the message is about bad behaviour by ‘someone who I trusted’. The post then takes the form of a whodunnit.”
In her original post, Coleen claimed she had undertaken a five-month investigation after suspecting that someone on her private Instagram account was leaking stories. She claims to have posted three Insta-stories that only Becky’s account could view, to see if they ended up in The Sun newspaper, which they did. Becky – who was pregnant with her fifth child at the time – denied any involvement. After saying she had been trolled and was suffering from panic attacks, she sued Coleen for libel. And in a further blow to Coleen – who has four sons, Kai, 11, Klay, seven, Kit, four, and two-year-old Cass – she will have to pay Becky’s £23,000 costs for this preliminary hearing.
Neither Becky, 38, or Coleen, 34, were in court, but they’ve been ordered to try and sort out their differences behind closed doors. Both legal teams
‘The ruling didn’t go Coleen’s way, but she won’t give up’
agreed to a stay of proceedings until February 2021, so there could be “one final attempt to resolve the matter without the need for a full trial”.
And while Coleen is doubtless upset by the ruling, she is refusing to give up, as she still believes she’s in the right. Our source says, “Coleen’s team are making it clear that she did not want this to go to court. They are saying she has tried to contact Rebekah a number of times to discuss a settlement, but the answer is always the same: ‘Apologise or I’ll go to court’.”
Our source adds, “At the moment, Coleen is refusing to apologise, as she believes she’s in the right. But she is hoping they can come to some kind of agreement, as she thinks it’s a waste of time and money going to a full trial. However, if she has to, that’s what she’ll do. This first ruling has not gone her way, but that doesn’t mean she’ll give up without a fight, and they have a few months to work on it.
“Right now, she just wants to enjoy Christmas with her family.” n