Rebekah Vardy, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, has lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, the spouse of former England striker Wayne Rooney. The industry-friendly ruling effectively ended a high-profile legal fight. As a part of the settlement, Vardy has consented to pay almost £1.2 million towards legal fees that Rooney racked up. The case started with Rooney’s allegations filed in 2019. She accused Vardy of leaking her private posts to the tabloids.
The costly libel proceedings, which began in 2022 after Vardy tried to take Rooney to court over the allegations, the court found largely in favor of Rooney, resulting in staggering legal fees for Vardy. Rooney’s ex-legal bill ran to £1.8 million. Almost $58,000 of this sum included charges such as “briefing the press” and various other expenses that her legal team argued she was entitled to “no such thing”.
Juliet Wells, Rooney’s attorney, suggested a swift resolution was possible. She notably stressed that Rooney should have been participating “much more constructively” in negotiations. Robin Dunne, acting for Rooney, condemned Vardy’s “fishy” tactics. As just one example, he accused her of having been “drip feeding” settlement offers during the entire process.
In August, 2024, Vardy offered to settle the dispute for £1.1 million to pay for Rooney’s legal fees. He left out interest and assessment costs from this deal. Rooney dismissed this offer “out of hand.” Following the court’s ruling, Vardy is now required to pay 90% of Rooney’s costs, including an initial payment of £800,000.
Rooney’s legal team is asking for more than £300,000 in “expert assessment costs.” In rebuttal, Wells described these costs as “grossly disproportionate,” proposing a limit of “no more than £100,000.”
Dunne emphasized the impact of Vardy’s actions on the case, stating, “lurid headlines arising from briefings from Mrs Vardy’s camp dominated the press in the days before and during the hearings.” He was quick to point out that these are but a few examples. In those cases, we can truly say that Vardy is “the architect of her own downfall.”
“There will rarely be a case where it can be said with greater force that Mrs Vardy is the author of her own misfortune.” – Robin Dunne for Mrs Rooney
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