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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Mark Jefferies

Rebekah Vardy lays bare childhood abuse and being abandoned by Jehovah’s Witness

Rebekah Vardy will lay bare the details of her troubled childhood in a documentary.

She grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and says the religious movement failed to support her when she was abused as a girl.

Rebekah, 41, who has also talked about being bullied when she was young, is fronting the programme.

It will also tell the traumatic stories of other people.

The Channel 4 documentary – Rebekah Vardy : The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me – is due to be screened on May 16.

Channel 4 said: “This film shows a side to one of the UK’s most famous women that has not been told before.”

It comes 10 months after Rebekah lost her Wagatha Christie libel case against Coleen Rooney.

Rebekah will speak to people who were also raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses (CLICK NEWS AND MEDIA)
Rebekah is married to footballer Jamie Vardy (LightRocket via Getty Images)

Rebekah brought the High Court legal action due to being named by Coleen as the source of stories being leaked to a newspaper.

A source close to Rebekah said: “After the court case, she was offered lots of TV things about the Wagatha Christie case and did not want to engage.

“Then Channel 4 got in touch with this project they had been planning for a while, looking for someone to front it.

“She was very keen and it all started from there.

“It’s a Panorama-style documentary, very serious.

“When she interviews people, their stories are harrowing and her own story is a hard one as well. It is a very different Rebekah from the one people think they know.”

Coleen Rooney outside court with her husband, former footballer Wayne Rooney (Getty Images)

Mum-of-five Rebekah – married to Leicester City and England footballer Jamie, 36 – previously revealed she was abused for years.

She said on Instagram : “The year I turned 15 was [when] my life really started to spiral out of control.

“From the age of 12 I had been sexually abused by someone I had trusted. I had already taken an overdose of pills and vodka in an attempt to end the awful feelings of shame, fear and anger that I couldn’t find another way to escape from. I already hated myself...

“I was made homeless and ended up sleeping on sofas. I was 15 and should still have been a child.”

On being picked on as a girl because of being a Jehovah’s Witness at the time, she said in 2017: “It was horrific.”

* Rebekah Vardy: The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me is on Channel 4 on May 16 at 10pm.

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