Rebekah Vardy ordered to pay £1.5m towards Coleen Rooney’s legal costs over Wagatha Christie trial
Rebekah Vardy has been ordered to pay £1.5m towards Coleen Rooney’s legal costs following their Wagatha Christie libel trial.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, Judge Justice Steyn said Vardy must pay 90% of Rooney’s costs, and that an £800,000 down payment must be paid by 4pm on 15 November.
In the case dubbed “war of the wags”, Rooney incurred eyewatering costs of more than £2 million. However, £350,000 of those costs had already been racked up ahead of the trial, so were removed to produce a final figure of £1,667,860.
The final costs ruling will be confirmed once Rooney submits her final total costs bill.
Although the exact figure of Vardy’s own costs is not known, it’s likely to be a similar amount to Rooney’s, stretching into the millions.
Vardy has also been ordered to pay part of the costs of seven journalists who were potential witnesses but did not actually give evidence in the week-long trial. Rooney has also been ordered to pay a portion of their costs.
Vardy lost her libel case against Rooney in July.
Vardy with husband Leicester City striker Jamie
The case centred around a social media post published by Rooney on 9 October 2019, in which she accused Vardy of leaking stories about her to the press.
The post led to Rooney being dubbed “Wagatha Christie” on social media – a nod to the world-famous British crime novelist Agatha Christie.
Vardy, who had denied being responsible for leaking Rooney’s personal information, announced she would be taking Rooney to court in June 2020, with the trial finally reaching the High Court in May this year.
However, the case didn’t go Vardy’s way, with the court finding the essence of Rooney’s social media post was “substantially true” – that’s to say Vardy was responsible for leaking Rooney’s private information to the press.
In her ruling, Judge Steyn described Rooney’s evidence as “honest and reliable”, but labelled Vardy’s evidence “manifestly inconsistent… evasive or implausible”.
Coleen and Wayne Rooney arrive at court
In the order made public on Tuesday, the same judge said Vardy had “deliberately deleted or destroyed evidence”, calling such behaviour “outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct of proceedings”.
For this reason she said costs would be assessed on an indemnity rather than a standard basis – a decision which is more favourable to Mrs Rooney in terms of the amount of her legal bill she can recover.
However, the judge also explained her decision to only order 90% of Rooney’s costs to be paid by Vardy, citing Rooney’s “weak” allegation that Vardy was one of the people behind The Sun’s Secret Wag gossip column, and Rooney’s unsuccessful public interest defence.
Thousands of members of actors’ trade union Equity are being asked whether they would support industrial action over artificial intelligence protections.
The organisation has launched an indicative ballot among about 7,000 members working in film and TV.
Performers are being asked whether they are prepared to refuse to be digitally scanned on set in order to secure adequate artificial intelligence protections.
It will be the first time the performing arts and entertainment trade union has asked this whole section of its membership to vote in a ballot.
The Hollywood strikes took place in 2023. File pic: AP
The announcement follows the Hollywood strikes in 2023, when members of Equity’s sister union in the US, SAG-AFTRA, and writers, went on strike over issues including AI.
Video game actors in the US also protested over the use of AI, ending almost a year of industrial action earlier in 2025.
Equity’s ballot opens on Thursday and runs for two weeks, and will show the level of support the union has for action short of a strike.
Another statutory ballot would have to be made before any industrial action is taken.
“While tech companies get away with stealing artists’ likeness or work, and the government and decision makers fret over whether to act, unions including Equity are at the forefront of the fight to ensure working people are protected from artificial intelligence misuse,” Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming said in a statement.
“If bosses can’t ensure someone’s likeness and work won’t be used without their consent, why should performers consent to be digitally scanned in the first place?”
Mr Fleming said the ballot would give members the opportunity to “send a clear message to the industry: that it is a basic right of performers to have autonomy over their own personhood and identity”.
The union has no choice but to recommend members support industrial action, he said.
“It’s time for the bosses to step away from the brink and offer us a package, including on AI protections, which respects our members,” added Mr Fleming.
The hotly anticipated Spotify Wrapped is revealing our top tracks, artists and albums for 2025.
But how does the streaming service calculate personalised summaries of users’ listening habits and rank the UK’s hottest artists?
Here’s a look at how your data is used.
The platform describes the annual statistics as “a chance to look back on your year in sound”.
It says data is captured between January and mid-November on every account, although it mostly excludes anything streamed in private mode. (Don’t worry, your passion for the Spice Girls can be kept secret.)
Wrapped presents personalised listening statistics, which Spotify calls the “real story of your year of listening”, alongside global figures for comparison.
The streaming service says Minutes Listened reflects the actual time spent listening to audio on the platform.
Once a user streams at least 30 tracks, Spotify generates a list of Your Top Songs. Similarly, Your Top Artists ranks artists based on total minutes listening to a particular performer.
Other metrics identify the top genres users have played, as well as podcasts and audiobooks ranked by total minutes listened. And if you’ve listened to at least 70% of tracks on a record, you’ll see top albums too.
Spotify also creates Your Listening Age, a guesstimate of your age based on the era of the music “you feel most connected to”.
The streaming service says the statistic is calculated using a five-year span of music which users engaged with more than other listeners of a similar age.
Spotify has been summing up 2025’s most listened to tracks. Pic: Spotify
Swift vs Bunny
Pop superstar Taylor Swift has been named the UK’s most-streamed artist on Spotify for the third year in a row.
But she dropped out of the top spot in the global rankings, coming second to Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, who secured more than 19.8 billion streams. Third were The Weeknd, followed by Drake and Billie Eilish.
Bad Bunny’s LP Debi Tirar Mas Fotos was the most listened-to album worldwide.
Read more from Sky News:
Sabrina Carpenter fury at video
Drake’s lawsuit dismissed
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Spotify revealed Drake was the UK’s second most-listened to artist, followed by Sabrina Carpenter in third, The Weeknd in fourth and Billie Eilish in fifth.
Despite being the most listened-to artist, Swift failed to break into the UK’s top five most listened-to songs and albums of the year.
Alex Warren’s Ordinary was the most-streamed song, and Short ‘N’ Sweet, released by Carpenter last year, the top album.
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