Rebekah Vardy reveals she received ‘abusive’ threats over Wagatha Christie

‘It’s the pits,’ Vardy said

Kate Ng
Wednesday 03 August 2022 03:28 EDT
Comments
Wagatha Christie case: Coleen Rooney wins libel trial brought by Rebekah Vardy

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Rebekah Vardy has spoken out about receiving “abuse”, including “death and rape threats” in the wake of Wagatha Christie.

The former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star gave her first interview since losing her libel case against Coleen Rooney, after the High Court ruled she was responsible for a series of stories leaked to newspapers.

Vardy, 40, told The Sun that, on top of being called names while out in public, she received threatening letters and messages that “got worse and worse”.

She said: “The abuse I was getting was insane. At the beginning it would be 100 messages a day.

“I even got letters sent to my home and some crazy s*** sent over including letters from psychics.”

Vardy continued to reveal that she has received “death threats, rape threats, pretty much everything”.

“It’s the pits, really.”

The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy found herself accused of being at the centre of Rooney’s months-long “sting operation”, as she sought to find out who had been sharing “false stories” about her to newspapers.

Rooney, the wife of former England footballer Wayne Rooney, accused Vardy of passing stories to The Sun in a dramatic expose on social media in 2019, which is now known as “Wagatha Christie”.

Vardy, who has maintained her innocence, sued Rooney for defamation but lost the multimillion-pound case.

The High Court judge ruled on Friday (29 July) that even if Vardy was not the direct source of the leak, the evidence presented to the court showed she “knew of, condoned and actively engaged” in sharing the information.

However, she insisted that she would “do it all again tomorrow if I had to, because I am innocent”.

“I wanted to clear my name,” Vardy told The Sun. “Because I was accused of something I didn’t do and I felt really strongly about it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Vardy revealed that she had been admitted to hospital twice to be treated for mental health issues since the saga began.

She said she has experienced “serious panic attacks”, as well as developing “kidney stones which were brought on by stress”.

Vardy also said she believes she is “probably suffering with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)” from the case.

In a separate interview with TalkTV, which is set to air on Wednesday evening (3 August), Vardy told anchor Kate McCann that she feels “let down by the legal system”.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in