Rebekah Vardy’s summary judgment application fails

Rebekah Vardy’s application for summary judgment was dismissed by Mrs Justice Steyn DBE in a judgment handed down this morning in the ongoing Vardy v Rooney libel litigation.

The high-profile libel claim brought by Ms Vardy is over a post on social media that alleged she had secretly informed The Sun newspaper of Ms Rooney’s private posts and stories from Instagram.

Ms Vardy had sought summary judgment in relation to one of the three ‘sting operation’ posts made on Coleen Rooney’s Instagram which were viewable only by Ms Vardy’s account.

Ms Vardy’s application to strike out twelve paragraphs of Ms Rooney’s Defence succeeded in relation to two paragraphs and parts of another one relating to allegations of Ms Vardy’s self-promotion in the press. These were struck out on the basis that they were background facts rather than being sufficiently probative. The application failed in relation to the remainder. In particular, Ms Vardy failed in her attempt to strike out Ms Rooney’s public interest defence, particulars alleging Ms Vardy was a primary source for the ‘Secret Wag’ column in The Sun, particulars of positive promotion received by Ms Vardy from The Sun, and particulars of positive promotion alleged to have been received from The Sun in return.

A 5RB case report can be found here.

David Sherborne and Ben Hamer of 5RB act for the Defendant, instructed by Brabners LLP.