Wagatha Christie: Coleen Rooney wins latest round in legal fight with Rebekah Vardy

Coleen Rooney (right) accused Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to the press about her private life in 2019

Coleen Rooney has won the latest round of her court case against former friend Rebekah Vardy.

Vardy has been ordered to pay £10,500 towards Rooney's legal costs, the court decided.

The women will resume their High Court battle in September.

Rooney and her legal team told The Sun newspaper they were "pleased" with the result, and a spokesperson for Vardy said they were "completely confident" they would win the case.

Earlier this month, Vardy had parts of Coleen Rooney's defence thrown out by a judge, in the latest stage of their libel battle.

'It's... Rebekah Vardy'

Jamie Vardy's wife is suing Rooney for libel after Rooney claimed fake stories had been leaked to newspapers by Vardy's Instagram account.

The row - in which the wife of ex-England player Wayne Rooney was dubbed "Wagatha Christie" - began in 2019.

The judge has allowed Rooney to keep other parts of her defence.

At a hearing in June, Vardy's lawyers said parts of Rooney's defence were "irrelevant or peripheral" to the case.

And on Wednesday the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, agreed.

She dismissed a claim by Rooney that Vardy showed "publicity-seeking behaviour" when sitting behind her in someone else's seat at the 2016 Euros.

"The fact that a person seeks media coverage of their own attendance at a football match does not make it more probable that they would disclose private information about another person to the press," the judge said.

Rebekah Vardy sitting behind Coleen Rooney during a Euro 2016 match

She also threw out an allegation that Vardy was leaking information on the libel case itself to the Sun newspaper.

But Mrs Justice Steyn did say the alleged close relationship between Vardy and the newspaper was "one of the building blocks" of Coleen Rooney's case.

'The Secret Wag'

Rebekah Vardy's lawyers previously told the court that the authorship of the Sun's column, The Secret Wag, was not relevant to the trial.

Rooney claims Vardy is the author of that column, but Vardy denies it.

Rooney's lawyers said it showed Vardy's "history and practice of publicly disclosing private information about other people she was friendly or associated with".

The judge found that the column was relevant to the case, so that bit of Rooney's defence is being kept.

• Wagatha Christie: A uniquely British feud

• Judge backs Vardy in 'Wagatha Christie' hearing

Vardy's alleged close relationship with the Sun and its journalists is another part of Rooney's defence that the judge refused to throw out.

And she dismissed Vardy's bid for a summary judgment - a legal step which would see that part of the case resolved without a trial - in relation to Rooney's claim that Vardy leaked a story to the Sun about her returning to TV presenting.

The judge said: "It is one of many factual issues to be resolved at trial in determining whether the truth defence is made out."

The origins of 'Wagatha Christie'

Social media was set ablaze on 9 October 2019 when Coleen Rooney pressed send on her Instagram and Twitter posts, accusing Rebekah Vardy of leaking details about her life to the tabloids.

In an effort to work out which of her friends had been sharing stories, she'd published different fake stories on Instagram to different people, and monitored which ones ended up as newspaper stories.

Rebekah Vardy took to social media to deny any involvement in the leaking.

As the argument raged on, Vardy's lawyers said her husband faced abuse on the pitch which meant they couldn't let their young children attend games anymore.

Vardy decided to sue for defamation last year in July, with court documents written by her lawyers saying the incident had affected her mental and physical health.

When Rooney's social media posts were released, Vardy was seven months pregnant and her lawyers claim they led to her being taken to hospital three times with anxiety attacks.

The pair originally became friends through their husbands, former Manchester United and England player Wayne Rooney and Leicester striker Jamie Vardy.

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