FOOTBALLER’S wife Becky Vardy refused to blow the final whistle on legal action despite losing another Wagatha Christie court tussle to rival Coleen Rooney.
Her latest appeal over costs from the warring Wags’ 2022 libel fight was rejected by the High Court yesterday.
Becky, 43, had been ordered to pay most of Coleen’s £1.8million legal costs, which had soared from about £540,000.
The mum of five had lodged an appeal, insisting Coleen’s lawyers had deliberately understated their costs earlier on to make hers look excessive.
In October, a judge ruled against her — and was backed by London’s High Court yesterday
Last night, sources close to Becky, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, said she would fight on but admitted the six-year battle was nearing the end.
Lawyers are now drawing up plans for a final throw of the dice, scrutinising 39-year-old Coleen’s costs line by line to try to trim the bill, sources say.
It could trigger a further two-week hearing later this year.
A source close to Becky said: “She is naturally disappointed, but now just wants to focus on the future.
“It feels like we are coming towards the beginning of the end.”
A spokesperson for Rebekah said: “In terms of the two judgements today (10.04) we are gratified disclosure has been obliged in one ruling whilst being respectfully disappointed that, in the other judgement, our appeal was not successful.
“Now we just wish to move on and look to the future.
“We will be making no further comment at this time.”
It comes after she was dealt a further blow last October when a judge ordered Becky to hand over a further £100,000 within 21 days.
Rebekah also lost a bid to slash former I’m A Celeb star Coleen‘s costs, which have been put at £1,833,906.89.
She launched an appeal against the October decision – accusing Coleen’s team of “serious misconduct”.
But the mum-of-two’s bid was dismissed today following a hearing at the High Court.
Mr Justice Cavanagh found the previous judge had “ample material” to reach his decision and that there was “no valid basis for challenging on appeal the judge’s conclusion”.
He added: “The appeal must fail on the basis that the judge was entitled to reach the conclusion that he came to.”
In a separate ruling, Rebekah also largely lost a bid for access to more documents in relation to costs – including details about her claim for VAT.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Becky Vardy drags Wagatha rival Coleen Rooney to court for new battle over £1.8m libel bill ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6362917316112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Senior Costs Judge Mark Whalan said he was “not persuaded” her team should be able to inspect privileged material but ruled they could see a redacted retainer.
Rebekah’s barrister Jamie Carpenter KC previously claimed Coleen “very substantially understated” her legal costs by around 40 per cent in her budget.
He also accused her team of understating some of her costs to “attack the other party’s costs”.
Mr Carpenter added: Although the costs judge was critical of Mrs Rooney’s lawyers for their lack of transparency, he held ‘on balance’ and ‘only just’ that there was no misconduct.
“It is respectfully submitted that he was wrong to do so.”
The barrister said a “proportionate sanction” for the alleged misconduct would be to limit the amount of Coleen’s legal costs up to August 2021 to £220,955.07.
But Benjamin Williams KC, for Coleen, said the budget was “properly and correctly completed” and there was “no tenable case” of misconduct.
He added: “Mrs Rooney’s primary position is that, in this, she and her solicitors were adopting the right approach; but even if this is not correct, it was a reasonable approach.”
In October, Senior Costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker found “on balance and, I have to say, only just”, that team Coleen had not committed any wrongdoing.
As a result, he ruled it would therefore not be “appropriate” to reduce the amount of money Rebekah should pay – meaning she could still be landed with a £1.6million bill.
It came after Mr Carpenter accused Coleen’s team of “deliberately deceiving” the court by underestimating costs and time spent working on the case.
He also claimed Coleen’s team had adopted a “kitchen sink approach” when calculating the total.
The lawyer claimed the bill included costs for one of Coleen’s team to stay at the five star Nobu Hotel.
It also included “substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges”, the lawyer said.
He said Coleen’s legal bill – £1,833,906.89 – was more than three times her “agreed costs budget of £540,779.07”.
But Robin Dunne, for Coleen, argued it was “frankly outrageous” to accuse them of dishonesty.
He also said Rebekah had shown “deplorable conduct” in the case and and costs could have been lower if “she conducted this litigation appropriately”.
The lawyer added: “This was a libel claim which Mrs Vardy chose to launch, despite knowing that the Instagram post was true.
“Mrs Vardy refused to engage with Mrs Rooney to try and avoid these proceedings and by her conduct meant that significant additional costs were required to be incurred by Mrs Rooney.
“It sits ill in Mrs Vardy’s mouth to now claim that Mrs Rooney’s costs, a great deal of which were caused directly by her conduct, are unreasonable.”
Rebekah brought the multi-million pound case to court after she was accused of leaking stories to the press.
But Coleen – wife of ex-England ace Wayne – won the epic libel battle in 2022 – bringing an end to the three-year saga.
The row erupted back in October 2019 when Coleen turned detective and accused Rebekah of sharing stories from her personal Instagram account.
