She was branded a liar and left to foot a multimillion-pound legal bill after losing her dramatic court battle with Coleen Rooney, but last week Rebekah Vardy refused to lay low and instead gave a sensational new interview.
Rebekah, 40, had sued Coleen, 36, for libel after she was accused of leaking stories about the WAG that had appeared on her Instagram to the press. After losing the case to Coleen – dubbed Wagatha Christie – she fumed that the judge had got it “wrong” but has now been ordered to help pay a reported £3 million bill from both parties.
But in the interview, Rebekah claimed intense social media abuse had left her in hospital, saying she’s suffering from PTSD and was “on medication” to get through it all.
She also revealed she had nearly passed out when she first read Coleen’s post outing her as the one behind the leaked stories, and had to drive her kids to school with bin bags on the windows because of the backlash. She even likened the trauma from the ordeal to what she felt after being abused by her stepdad as a child.
Rebekah – who’s married to footballer Jamie Vardy – said she’ll continue protesting her innocence “until she’s blue in the face” and called Coleen’s actions “odd and bizarre”. She added that she had “lost faith in the legal system”, adding, “We had a judge that didn’t understand the case”.
The interview led to speculation over how the drama was affecting England player Jamie – with one online commenter writing, “What must Jamie think about in all of this, her conduct and the way she is just in general… it must be exhausting for him.” Another wrote, “Jamie must be really struggling with all this drama”.
And sources now tell Closer that while Jamie supports his wife, he worries about Rebekah getting so stressed. The source says, “While Jamie will always back Becky, he has been anxious about her interview and the fact that the case is all over social media again. Even if she says she’s fine now, he does worry about how it’ll affect her and their whole family.
“She’s saying she knows what she’s doing, and she’s desperate to clear her name, but he wants to just move on from it all and for their family life to be stress-free and happy. They’re struggling because of how distressing Becky has found this and Jamie will always worry about her wellbeing. He’s just hoping it all comes to an end.”
Rebekah and Jamie met in 2014 and married two years later – Rebekah’s second marriage – and have had three kids together since, Sofia, seven, Finlay, four, and Olivia – who Rebekah was pregnant with at the time of Coleen’s post. But it seemed there was drama from the offset, with Jamie falling out with his parents when he began dating Rebekah. Neither sets of parents attended their wedding.
During the court case, Coleen’s husband Wayne Rooney stood by her side throughout, while Jamie attended just once due to his training schedule. He also did not publicly comment when the verdict was announced.
But in her interview last week, Rebekah asserted the whole ordeal had brought them closer together, saying, “That was the hardest part for us was dealing with the repercussions of the accusation. Not that it put any strain on our marriage whatsoever, because it hasn’t. In fact, I’d say that it’s made us stronger and more as a unit.”
But now TV presenter and former WAG Lizzie Cundy – who knows Becky and whose marriage to footballer Jason Cundy imploded very publicly after his alleged infidelity – tells us, “This interview has shined the light back on Becky and the case and the drama. The floodgates are open again now. Despite the verdict and everything, people are becoming more and more fascinated by her and are watching to see what she does next.
“She’s a strong woman – and she wants to clear her name – but keeping it in the headlines will also cause a struggle for her and her family. The attention will be a lot, and people are ready to catch her out now. So she and her family will probably feel under a lot of pressure if the media attention around it keeps going on.”
“Something like this would be tough for any couple. Jamie will have dealt with banter in the changing rooms from his fellow players, and Becky spoke about the abuse at matches – where they were calling Jamie and Becky all sorts of names. This interview brings it all back up and there may be more of it, which would be a whole new nightmare. I think they will need to lean on each other more than ever and this will be a difficult time for them.”