Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy’s Wagatha Christie case is set to return to court today.
Rebekah launched legal action against her former pal last year, after she publicly accused her of leaking stories to the press.
In 2019, the wife of Wayne Rooney claimed she planted false information on her private Instagram page and blocked everyone from her story – except Rebekah’s account.
The mother-of-four said stories about her basement flooding, returning to TV, and gender selection were only viewed by Rebekah’s account – and the false stories all made it into the press.
Coleen believed this was proof that the fellow WAG allegedly sold stories about her private life, but Rebekah has vehemently denied her claims.
Lawyers for the WAGs will go face-to-face in London’s High Court again today in the latest showdown in the lengthy legal battle.
A preliminary hearing will be held to deal with the timetable of the case and any disputes over the parties’ legal costs.
Back in March, Coleen’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”.
At the time, Rebekah’s lawyer Sara Mansoori said her client’s overall budget was £897,000, the estimated costs of which are £465,842 – in comparison to Coleen’s estimated costs in her cost budget of £402,312.
These estimated costs are likely to have changed after Rebekah succeeded in having parts of Coleen’s defence thrown out.
In court last month, Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed a claim by Coleen that her fellow WAG showed “publicity seeking behaviour” when sitting behind her in someone else’s seat at the 2016 Euros.
The judge found that even assuming the allegation was true, it would still not help Coleen’s case.
However, the judge ruled against Rebekah on other parts of Coleen’s defence and denied her bid for summary judgment – a legal step which would see that part of the case resolved without a trial – relating to Coleen’s claim that Rebekah leaked a story about her returning to TV presenting.
Rebekah’s lawyers had argued that removing the parts of Coleen’s defence would save £200k in Rebekah’s legal costs and reduce the length of the trial by three to four days.
Coleen’s lawyers previously said the request to remove parts of their defence was a tactical move as parts of the defence would “undermine (Rebekah’s) case as well as embarrass her”.
Today’s hearing is set to begin at 2pm.
