Rebekah Vardy wants 50% cut in £1.8m Wagatha Christie libel battle legal costs after criticising Coleen Rooney for paying for lawyer's Nobu hotel stay, High Court hears

Rebekah Vardy wants to halve the £1.8million legal bill she faces in her ' Wagatha Christie ' libel battle with Coleen Rooney , the High Court has been told.

She is demanding a 50 per cent cut in the settlement as it was alleged that Coleen was charging for a lawyer's stay at a five-star Nobu Hotel.

Lawyers for the two warring WAGs have returned to court today after Rebekah, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy , lost a legal action in July 2022 having sued Coleen over claims about leaking stories to the media.

Coleen, married to former Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney , accused Rebekah in 2019 of sharing her private information to the press on social media - which Mrs Justice Steyn found was 'substantially true'.

And in October 2022, the judge ordered Rebekah to pay 90 per cent of her fellow WAG's legal costs, with an initial £800,000 to be handed over .

The women's lawyers have been back in court in London in a dispute over the amount to be paid, as lawyers for Rebekah said Coleen's claimed legal bill totalled £1,833,906.89.

Rebekah's lawyers argue that the opposing legal team's estimate of their costs was deliberately misleading, and that it amounted to a deliberate deception of both Vardy's side and of the court.

Coleen's representatives say it is 'frankly outrageous' to accuse them of dishonesty.

In written submissions for a hearing beginning today, Jamie Carpenter KC, representing Rebekah, said that this included costs for a lawyer staying 'at the Nobu Hotel, incurring substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges'.

Reports today suggested that among the costs were £2,000 for her solicitor's stay at London's five-star Nobu Hotel and a £225 food and minibar tab.

Mr Carpenter said: 'The costs dispute has been rendered particularly intractable by the sheer magnitude of the costs claimed by Mrs Rooney, in absolute terms and when compared to her agreed costs budget, the number of errors in the bill and the extraordinary nature of some of the costs claimed.

'The bill, drawn at 100 per cent of the costs claimed totals £1,833,906.89.'

Mr Carpenter said the bill was 'drawn without sufficient care' and had 'a 'kitchen sink' approach', and included 'over £120,000 of costs to which Coleen had no entitlement'.

He also said that Coleen's barrister David Sherborne, 'charged total fees over the course of the proceedings of £497,850'.

In the viral social media post in October 2019 at the heart of the libel claim, Coleen said she had carried out a months-long 'sting operation' and accused Rebekah of leaking information about her private life to the press .

Coleen publicly claimed Rebekah's account was the source behind three stories in the Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile .

These featured her travelling to Mexico for a 'gender selection' procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.

Following the high-profile trial, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Coleen's favour, finding it was 'likely' that Rebekah's agent Caroline Watt had passed information to the Sun and that she 'knew of and condoned this behaviour'.

The judge added that Rebekah had 'actively' engaged, 'directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney's posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt'.

Rebekah always denied any wrongdoing, but she was described as an 'untrustworthy witness' who was likely to have destroyed potentially crucial evidence on purpose in Mrs Justice Steyn's devastating judgement on the case.

Robin Dunne, representing Coleen today, said in his written submissions that Rebekah had shown 'deplorable conduct' in the case, and that costs could have been lower if 'she conducted this litigation appropriately'.

He said: '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.'

He continued: '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.'

The hearing before senior costs judge Andrew Gordon-Saker, which was not attended by Coleen or Rebekah today, will conclude on Wednesday.

In May, senior judge Andrew Gordon-Saker reportedly told Coleen and Rebekah's lawyers to come to an agreement, warning: 'This could go on and on'.