Rebekah Vardy has finally agreed to pay Coleen Rooney £1.2m of her legal costs after a bitter legal battle.

Rebekah Vardy has finally agreed to pay almost £1.2 million of Coleen Rooney’s legal costs following their high-profile Wagatha Christie libel battle, a judge has been told.

Wayne Rooney’s wife racked up a legal bill exceeding £1.8 million after successfully defending Rebekah Vardy’s High Court claim in 2022, and it was decided that Vardy was liable for a substantial portion of Rooney’s legal costs. Juliet Wells, Mrs Vardy’s barrister, stated in written submissions that Rooney’s total legal bill of £1,833,906.89 “has now been settled at £1,190,000, being c.£1,125,000 plus interest of c.£65.000”.

Ms Wells further noted that Mrs Rooney is currently seeking “assessment costs” of over £300,000, which she characterised as “grossly disproportionate” and suggested should be capped at “no more than £100,000”. The final amount of the assessment costs will be determined at the hearing before Costs Judge Mark Whalan, who expressed his satisfaction that the two parties had reached a “commercial accommodation”. Neither Rebekah nor Coleen attended the remote hearing.