Rebekah Vardy faces paying up to £1.5million for Coleen Rooney’s legal costs after dramatically losing their Wagatha Christie libel battle.
Court papers reveal Mrs Vardy has been ordered to stump up 90% of her rival’s fees.
But the wife of Leicester star Jamie has challenged Mrs Rooney to donate the sum to charity.
Mrs Vardy, 40, said: “Let’s hope you put your money where your mouth is and some good can come of this whole embarrassing spectacle.”
She also posted an image that said: “It’s always the ones with the dirty hands pointing the fingers.”
But one insider hit back, saying: “It’s a bit rich to be preaching about money when Coleen wanted to settle this before the costs started racking up.”
Mrs Vardy’s camp claim Mrs Rooney, wife of England star Wayne, was never serious about settling.
Court papers show an initial £800,000 payment must be made by November 15.
Mrs Rooney’s legal team have not yet produced a final total for their costs but the last figure presented to the court was £1,667,860 – and 90% of that would be £1.5m if it remains unchanged. The final figure may be cut later.
Mrs Rooney, 36, accused Mrs Vardy of leaking stories about her to a paper after a 2019 sting. Mrs Vardy sued.
In July, High Court Judge Karen Steyn ruled Mrs Rooney proved her claim was “substantially true” and Mrs Vardy knew about disclosures by her ex-agent Caroline Watt.
Mrs Vardy has to pay her own costs as well as those of some journalists. Mrs Justice Steyn decided the costs should be assessed on higher level, rather than a standard basis.
This was in part because Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt had “deliberately deleted or destroyed evidence”.
