Rebekah Vardy challenges Coleen Rooney to donate £1.5m Wagatha Christie payout to charity

Rebekah Vardy has said Coleen Rooney should donate her winnings from the Wagatha Christie trial to charity so "some good can come of this whole embarrassing spectacle".

The high court has ruled that Vardy must pay 90 per cent of Rooney’s legal costs, amounting to a maximum of £1.5 million, after she was unsuccessful in her bid to sue her fellow footballer's wife for libel.

Vardy, 40, wrote on Instagram: “Let’s hope you put your money where your mouth is and some good can come of this whole embarrassing spectacle.”

Read more: Coleen Rooney teams up with Disney+ for 'Wagatha Christie' programme

She shared this alongside a jar of coins labelled 'Charity', and also posted "It’s always the ones with the dirty hands pointing the fingers.”

After Rooney was cleared of libelling Vardy she said: "I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others."

The judge imposed the unusually high penalty charge partly because Vardy was ruled to have deliberately destroyed WhatsApp messages and other evidence relevant to the trial.

Vardy must pay £800,000 immediately to Rooney - wife of footballer Wayne Rooney - with more payments pending further legal discussions.

Rooney's final total court costs are yet to be confirmed but the last figure presented was £1,667,860 - 90 percent of which is £1.5m.

Vardy will also have to pay her own legal costs, as well as those of some of the journalists at The Sun, which could bring her total bill to more than £3m.

Former I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant Vardy - who is married to Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy - lost her bid to sue Rooney for defamation in the High Court.

At the core of the trial was Coleen Rooney's public accusation that Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account was the source of information leaked from her personal private account to The Sun newspaper.

Rooney, 36, announced on social media in October 2019 that she had narrowed down a list of suspects behind the leak to just one by gradually removing followers and posting fake updates until she declared the leaks came from Rebekah Vardy's account - hence the 'Wagatha Christie' nickname.

Read more: Rebekah Vardy says there was 'a lot of sexism' in Wagatha Christie coverage

High Court Judge Karen Steyn ruled Rooney proved her claim was “substantially true” and that Vardy knew about disclosures to The Sun by her ex-agent Caroline Watt.

Watch: Rebekah Vardy said she wasn't worried about paying the costs of the Wagatha Christie trial