Rebekah Vardy has finally agreed to pay almost £1.2 million of Coleen Rooney’s legal costs following their high-profile Wagatha Christie libel battle, a judge has been told.

Wayne Rooney’s wife racked up a legal bill exceeding £1.8 million after successfully defending Rebekah Vardy’s High Court claim in 2022, and it was decided that Vardy was liable for a substantial portion of Rooney’s legal costs. Juliet Wells, Mrs Vardy’s barrister, stated in written submissions that Rooney’s total legal bill of £1,833,906.89 “has now been settled at £1,190,000, being c.£1,125,000 plus interest of c.£65.000”.

Ms Wells further noted that Mrs Rooney is currently seeking “assessment costs” of over £300,000, which she characterised as “grossly disproportionate” and suggested should be capped at “no more than £100,000”. The final amount of the assessment costs will be determined at the hearing before Costs Judge Mark Whalan, who expressed his satisfaction that the two parties had reached a “commercial accommodation”. Neither Rebekah nor Coleen attended the remote hearing.

Vardy originally took Rooney to court over a bombshell social media post from 2019. Coleen, married to football legend Wayne Rooney, famously executed an elaborate sting operation, suspecting someone was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to the press. She blocked all but one account to pinpoint the mole.

In a dramatic reveal on social media in 2019, Coleen disclosed: “It was….. Rebekah Vardy’s account,” having weeded out the suspects by posting fictitious tales, including a bogus trip to Mexico for gender selection and a potential appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. Vardy, denied the claims and retaliated with a libel lawsuit against Rooney, claiming the viral accusation tarnished her reputation.

On July 29, 2022, Mrs Justice Steyn sided with Coleen, stating that Vardy had leaked information about Coleen to the press. Rebekah was initially faced with legal costs of around £3 million and was ordered to cover 90 percent of Coleen’s costs.

Rebekah’s counsel then accused Coleen and her legal team of “serious misconduct” during a hearing, alleging they downplayed some costs to attack the other side’s expenses. However, a judge dismissed these claims, ruling there was no wrongdoing.

Despite Rebekah vehemently denying any leaks from Coleen’s private Instagram to the media, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in July 2022 that Coleen’s accusations were “substantially true.”

Rebekah was subsequently ordered to cover 90 per cent of Coleen’s legal fees, including an £800,000 payment. A hearing in October last year revealed that Coleen’s total legal bill amounted to £1,833,906.89 – reportedly three times the “agreed costs budget of £540,779.07. Rebekah’s legal team argued this was “disproportionate.”

However, Senior Costs Judge Andrew Gordon-Saker, concluded there had been no misconduct on the part of Coleen’s legal team and it wouldn’t be an “appropriate case” to reduce the fees Rebekah must pay. He acknowledged a “failure to be transparent” but deemed it not “sufficiently unreasonable or improper” to constitute misconduct.