Wagatha Christie row heats up as Coleen Rooney slams…

Wagatha Christie row heats up as Coleen Rooney slams Rebekah Vardy court bill claims

Coleen Rooney has slammed Rebekah Vardy after it was alleged she was 'furious' over court costs.

The wife of Jamie Vardy was forced to pay 90% of Coleen's legal bills after she lost her libel trial at the High Court in 2022.

At the time. the amount was assessed to be around £500,000. However, Vardy has now claimed that it has skyrocketed by more than 300%.

She is said to be fuming at the bill, which reportedly includes a £2,000 stay for one of Coleen's lawyers at a five-star hotel.

The WAG received the bill in April, with the total sum reportedly reaching £1.8million.

Lawyers representing Coleen have counteracted and said the costs would always be "inevitably substantially greater than any earlier ‘budgeted’ figures."

"The court announced that Mrs Vardy had lost the case in July 2022. From that point, Mrs Vardy ought to have been aware that she would be required to pay at least a substantial proportion of Mrs Rooney’s fees," a statement released on behalf of Rooney said.

The court ordered Vardy to pay Rooney £800,000. However, the payment was not made.

According to Rooney's lawyer: "Mrs Vardy advised that she would need more time to raise that amount of money".

It was added that Rooney allowed Vardy a longer period of time to gather the money, when she could have chosen to instruct bailiffs or even pursued bankruptcy proceedings against her.

Coleen has hit back at reports over court costs (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Speaking on behalf of Mrs Rooney, Paul Lunt, head of litigation at law firm Brabners, said: "Costs budgets are produced at the very start of these cases, almost two years before the final decision in this case. They are merely ‘best guesses’ of the costs that are likely to be incurred if the case proceeds as expected.

"Where a case develops in an extraordinary or unexpected manner, the costs will often increase substantially from what was originally envisaged. That goes for both parties and it would not surprise me if Mrs Vardy’s own costs ended up approaching something in the order of £4m."

Rebekah Vardy was reportedly furious over the £1.8million bill (Future Publishing via Getty Images)

It was recently alleged that Vardy is prepared to pay what she "rightfully owes" but has now launched a "war" over the spiralling costs.

"Becky was furious after seeing Coleen’s bill and hire a legal team to push back. To her, it’s war," a source told The Sun.

"Her legal team has said that some of the costs appear to have been inflated.

"They went back to Coleen’s team and asked for a detailed breakdown of some of the points."

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Wagatha Christie row heats up as Coleen Rooney slams Rebekah Vardy court bill claims

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