19 June 2023 , 16:55
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Coleen Rooney has hit back at Rebekah Vardy after it was reported that Vardy was 'furious' over court costs.
The wife of football star Jamie Vardy was ordered to pay 90% of Coleen's legal bills after she lost her libel trial at the High Court last year.
At the time, the sum was assessed to be around £500,000 but Rebekah has now claimed it has skyrocketed by more than 300%.
Rebekah was said to have been fuming when she was hit with the bill, which reportedly includes a £2,000 stay for one of Coleen's lawyers at a five-star hotel.
Rebekah received the bill in April, with the total amount reportedly reaching £1.8million.
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Lawyers acting for Coleen have now hit back and said the costs were always going to be "inevitably substantially greater than any earlier ‘budgeted’ figures."
Coleen has hit back at reports over court costs (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Rebekah Vardy was reportedly furious over the £1.8million bill (GC Images)"The court announced that Mrs Vardy had lost the case in July 2022. From that point, Mrs Vardy ought to have been aware that she would be required to pay at least a substantial proportion of Mrs Rooney’s fees," a statement released on behalf of Rooney said.
The court ordered Vardy to pay Rooney £800,000 but the payment was not made.
According to Rooney's lawyer, "Mrs Vardy advised that she would need more time to raise that amount of money".
It was added that Rooney 'chose to allow' Vardy more time to gather the money when she could have chosen to instruct bailiffs or even pursued bankruptcy proceedings against her.
Speaking on behalf of Mrs Rooney, Paul Lunt, head of litigation at law firm Brabners, said: "Costs budgets are produced at the very start of these cases, almost two years before the final decision in this case. They are merely ‘best guesses’ of the costs that are likely to be incurred if the case proceeds as expected.
Rooney 'chose to allow' Vardy more time to gather the money (PA)"Where a case develops in an extraordinary or unexpected manner, the costs will often increase substantially from what was originally envisaged. That goes for both parties and it would not surprise me if Mrs Vardy’s own costs ended up approaching something in the order of £4m."
It was recently reported that Vardy is prepared to pay what she "rightfully owes" but has now launched a "war" over the spiralling costs.
"Becky was furious after seeing Coleen’s bill and hired a legal team to push back. To her, it’s war," a source told The Sun.
"Her legal team has said that some of the costs appear to have been inflated.
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"They went back to Coleen’s team and asked for a detailed breakdown of some of the points."