Rebekah Vardy: ‘More scrutiny than murderers’ during Wagatha Christie trial

Rebekah Vardy has claimed she faced ‘more scrutiny than murderers and paedophiles’ amid her Wagatha Christie court case. 

In 2019, the WAG was publicly accused of leaking stories about Coleen Rooney to The Sun newspaper, which she furiously denied, resulting in a high profile court battle. 

Rebekah, 43, suffered further humiliation when she lost her libel case and in a fresh blow last month she was ordered to pay £1,190,000 of Coleen’s legal bills.

Now, the mother-of-five has claimed the backlash towards her was disproportionate and has continued to protest her innocence. 

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Rebekah insisted: ‘I didn’t sell stories to The Sun newspaper and that really is the end of it’. 

Claiming that she ‘got the raw end of that’, she continued: ‘In fact, I think murderers and paedophiles have faced far less scrutiny than I did.’

Yet Rebekah noted that now she’s ‘at peace’ and is looking forward, in particular, to an upcoming Netflix documentary about husband Jamie.

She also revealed that she is still in touch with Caroline Watt – her former agent – who she claimed was responsible for leaking the stories behind her back. 

Caroline was also the owner of a mobile phone filled with evidence that ended up at the bottom of the North Sea – or ‘Davy Jones’s locker’ as it was famously dubbed in court. 

Rebekah claimed that Coleen’s legal team had been ‘unfair and completely unjust’ in serving paperwork to Caroline’s home rather than through her lawyers and that Caroline had been through ‘considerable anguish’. 

Caroline did not testify during the trial, after being deemed ‘not fit to provide oral evidence’, and is yet to provide comment on the matter. 

When told that fans would be keen to hear Caroline’s side of story, Rebekah mused: ‘Well, maybe there’s a different version of that completely.’ 

Last month, the six-year legal battle finally came to an end when Rebekah agreed to pay £1,190,000 of Coleen’s legal bill, plus was ordered to pay a further £212,266 in assessment costs, after sensationally losing their high-profile libel case. 

This takes the total Rebekah must pay to at least £1,402,266.20. 

MailOnline understands she has already paid some of the bill, including £800,000 four years ago and £100,000 last year. 

Coleen must also pay Rebekah a total of £135,097.50 in costs under the terms of court orders from 2024, which will be set off against what Rebekah must pay.

A source close to Rebekah told MailOnline: ‘It’s a huge relief for Rebekah that this long legal battle is now coming to an end. 

‘She’s looking forward to putting the whole ordeal well and truly behind her. 

‘Now she’s just focusing on the future. And there are some big plans coming up for her now that she just wants to get cracking with.’

Coleen ran up a legal bill of more than £1.8 million while successfully defending herself against Rebekah’s High Court claim in 2022.

After losing their High Court showdown, Rebekah was ordered to pay 90 percent of Coleen’s legal costs.

Her lawyer previously argued Coleen’s team had used a ‘kitchen sink’ approach when calculating the total and included ‘over £120,000 of costs to which Coleen has no entitlement’.

It was also claimed the bill included costs for one of the WAG’s team to stay at Nobu – a five star luxury hotel – and ‘substantial dinner and drinks charges as well as mini bar charges’.

The lawyer said Coleen’s £1,833,906.89 legal bill was over three times her ‘agreed costs budget of £540,779.07’.

But Coleen’s lawyer, Robin Dunne, had argued it was ‘frankly outrageous’ to accuse them of dishonesty.

The catalyst for the famous Wagatha Christie case was a dramatic open letter written by Coleen and posted on social media in October 2019 in which she revealed she had turned detective to figure out who had been leaking the stories.

Coleen publicly claimed Rebekah’s account was the source behind three newspaper stories featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram profile – her travelling to Mexico for a ‘gender selection’ procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.

What followed was a tearful appearance from Rebekah on ITV’s Loose Women in February 2020 in which claimed the stress over the dispute had caused her to have anxiety attacks so severe she ‘ended up in hospital three times’.

The emotional display was met by Coleen with a statement to say she did not want to ‘engage in further public debate’ on the matter.

Four months later, in June 2020, Rebekah began legal proceedings against Coleen for libel with her lawyers alleging she had ‘suffered extreme distress, hurt, anxiety and embarrassment as a result of the publication of the post and the events which followed’.

When the case returned to the courts in February 2022, a series of explosive messages between Rebekah and her agent Caroline were revealed with Coleen’s lawyers alleging they were about her.

In May 2022, the women finally came face-to-face in court to give evidence as the Wagatha Christie trial began in the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Coleen secured her victory the next month when Mrs Justice Steyn delivered her verdict, dismissing the claim made by Rebekah and finding Coleen had proved the meaning of her famous accusatory letter was ‘substantially true’.

Whilst Coleen said she was ‘pleased’ the judge had ruled in her favour, Rebekah declared she was ‘extremely sad and disappointed’ at the decision.