Wagatha Christie: Rebekah Vardy tells Coleen Rooney to donate £800,000 legal costs to charity

Rebekah Vardy has called for Coleen Rooney to donate the legal bill she is owed to charity.

Rebekah Vardy, 40, and Coleen Rooney, 36, were at the centre of a bitter legal battle, known as the Wagatha Christie trail, after Vardy sued Rooney for libel.

Having lost the three-year saga, Vardy was ordered to pay Rooney £800,000 after losing the libel trial back in July 2022.

The media personality took to her Instagram stories to tell Rooney to “put your money where your mouth is”, while referencing a report on the trial saying Rooney would be “far happier” to see the money be used in a “more positive and productive way”.

Vardy added that she hopes “some good can come of this whole embarrassing spectacle” and tagged Coleen Rooney’s Instagram handle in the post.

Vardy has to pay £800,000 to Rooney by November 15 as ordered by Judge Mrs Justice Steyn.

She has been ordered to cover 90 per cent of Rooney’s legal fees, with a potential additional charge in the future once all costs are assessed.

Coleen Rooney, who won the libel trial, previously said: “I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others."

Vardy took to Instagram following the announcement of how much she will have to pay with a photo of a jar labelled ‘Charity’.

"Let’s hope you put your money where your mouth is and some good can come of this whole embarrassing spectacle!,” Vardy said.

The media personality also shared a cryptic Instagram story that read: "It’s always the ones with the dirty hands pointing the fingers."

What was the Wagatha Christie trial about?

The Wagatha Christie trial first began in 2019, when Coleen Rooney suspected that someone on her private Instagram account was leaking stories about her to the press.

Rooney, who is the wife of footballer Wayne Rooney, began fabricating stories about her life and restricting access to who could see them to work out the culprit.

At the end of 2019, she posted to her Twitter account sharing what had been happening, saying: "It’s... Rebekah Vardy’s account."

Vardy took to Twitter denying the allegations and saying that her Instagram account had been hacked.

In June 2020, Rebekah Vardy sued Coleen Rooney for defamation which sparked the Wagatha Christie trial.

The trial began in May 2022, with Mrs Justice Steyn ruling in favour of Rooney in July 2022.

Mrs Justice Steyn found that Rebekah Vardy had “deliberately withheld evidence” during the trial and that deletion of messages on WhatsApp that were important to the case had been “deliberate rather than accidental”.

At a hearing on 4 October 2022, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled for Vardy to pay for 90% of Rooney’s legal costs.

Although the full amount is yet to be decided, Vardy has to pay Rooney £800,000 by November, with the full amount suspected to be £1.5 million.