Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy ‘run real risk’ of going to court again, lawyers reveal

I'm a Celebrity's Coleen Rooney and her rival Rebekah Vardy "run the real risk" of falling out and even going back to court, lawyers told Yahoo.

Legal experts Christian Smith, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution at Seddons LLP, and David Wright, Associate at Seddons LLP, told Yahoo: "Whilst you may have thought Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy would have both wished to move on after their bruising litigation this new very public discussion about each other runs the real risk that they could find themselves falling out very badly again and yet again facing each other in court."

Rooney accused Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account for leaking information about her life to the press and she got the nickname "Wagatha Christie". Vardy sued her for libel but a judge at the High Court found Rooney's viral post to be "substantially true" in 2022. The latest in the long-running saga has seen Vardy appeal in November a recent ruling on Rooney's legal costs.

Wagatha Christie — a term trademarked by Vardy — is back in the news as Rooney is the biggest I'm a Celebrity signing this year, rumoured to getting £1.5m for the stint.

Coleen Rooney on Wagatha Christie in the jungle

So far, Rooney has said going to court over her feud with Vardy was her "worst nightmare" and she said she wasn't scared of making the post that would go viral.

The legal brains at Seddons LLP warned the mum-of-four discussing Wagatha Christie in the jungle could "re-open old wounds" — and the WAGs could end up back in court.

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"Yes, discussing a recent judgment in the jungle in a case, of which is still ongoing, in relation to costs is not something we would ever advise and certainly in not such a public forum," they explained.

"With the best intention in the world for Coleen Rooney to explain her story in the jungle it is entirely possible for something to be said or construed which could prejudice the ongoing case or may provide evidence which could be used to re-open old wounds or even provide grounds for a new case."

Rooney isn't the only one discussing their showdown.

Wagatha Christie jokes

Ant and Dec opened the I'm a Celebrity 2024 series with a brutal joke, saying: "It’ll be nice for Coleen to face a trial that doesn’t involve Rebekah Vardy." They have been cracking many "........." jokes, referring to the extraordinary Instagram post where Rooney declared "..... Rebekah Vardy's Instagram account" was the source of the leaks.

Then of course it was sleuth Rooney who rumbled Rev Richard Coles, Maura Higgins and Dean McCullough's secret mission. She could tell they weren't telling the truth when it came to their living conditions in the Jungle Junkyard sparking many Wagatha Christie 2.0 memes online, plus jokes from Ant and Dec.

The lawyers from Seddons LLP took an educated guess about the legal guidance ITV will have got behind the scenes for all Wagatha Christie related scenes.

They said: "ITV will no doubt believe viewers will be very interested to see what is said, however given the acrimonious relationship between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy ITV will be very wary to publish anything that could drag them into possible future legal proceedings.

"Ant and Dec will also be alive to the fact that joking should not cross the line to harassment or even inadvertently contain remarks that can be construed as defamatory given that Rebekah Vardy has shown she is willing to bring legal proceedings when she feels wronged.

"ITV will also be well aware of Rebekah Vardy’s claim to the trademark of the phrase ‘Wagatha Christie’ and will undoubtedly have advice to try and avoid a situation where ITV becomes involved in a trademark dispute through the use of this phrase."

Rebekah Vardy's column

Rooney isn't going to be the only one making money during her I'm a Celebrity stint as Vardy looks like she will cash in from her newspaper column and the trademark. She too will be getting guidance from lawyers behind the scenes.

Vardy told The Sun she wanted TV bosses to put her back in the jungle to confront Rooney, as well as how she would like her rival to eat animal penis. However, in her most recent column Vardy has "applauded" Rooney for performing well in the Bushtucker trial.

Legal brains Smith and Wright said: "Given the judgment made against Rebekah Vardy we would expect her to be conservative with her social media posts but at the moment there is a lot of comment on Coleen Rooney by Rebekah Vardy. This is surprising given that she has already lost an extremely high profile defamation action.

"We would expect that her columns written for the Sun will be scrutinised by the Sun for possible defamatory statements and the Sun will be wary of exposing itself to proceedings from what is said by Rebekah Vardy in the column."

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here airs nightly on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.