Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy will have a court showdown within weeks in their “Wagatha Christie” libel battle, a judge has ordered.
Mr Justice Nicklin said a preliminary trial will decide the “natural and ordinary” meaning of Coleen’s social media posts when she appeared to accuse Rebekah of leaking stories about her.
He made the order after Rebekah’s lawyers filed papers at the High Court asking Coleen, 34, for the meaning of the words spoken to be determined.
Rebekah, 38, is seeking damages, claiming the posts last October resulted in “severe and extreme hostility and abuse”.
Coleen made the claims on her Instagram account, which has 885,000 followers, and Twitter, which has 1.2million.
The mum-of-four said she suspected a pal had been leaking stories about her.
She claimed to have posted a string of false stories to see if they would be published in newspapers.
Her post said the bogus stories were only seen by one follower, concluding: “It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Coleen, wife of football star Wayne, has not yet filed a defence and the judge said she does not have to do so until 28 days after the preliminary hearing.
Model Rebekah, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, has denied going to the press about her former pal and said various people have had access to her Instagram account over the years.
If the sides do not settle out of court, the case is likely to go to a full trial next year.
A spokesman for Coleen said: “We will not be making any public comments at this time.”
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