Content warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse that may be distressing to some readers.
'Wagatha Christie' and its highly publicised court case took the world by storm last year.
It was between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, two women who are media personalities in the UK and are known for being the wives of two famous footballers.
In 2019, Rooney conducted an Instagram investigation so sophisticated it earned her the title 'Wagatha Christie' in the UK press. She claimed that Vardy was the person behind a series of leaked stories about Rooney's family.
Months later, Vardy launched a high court defamation lawsuit against Rooney. Then Vardy lost the case in 2022.
In a written ruling, the judge said that Rooney's allegation was "substantially true", and that Vardy had been involved in the leaking of stories against Rooney to the press.
Ever since, Vardy has kept a quiet profile, occasionally posting predominantly family photos to Instagram. But this week, she is launching a new documentary with British TV network Channel 4 where she opens up about her traumatic childhood.
Watch: Rebekah Vardy opens up about how she spent Christmas during her Jehovah Witness upbringing. Post continues below.
Vardy grew up as a Jehovah's Witness along with much of her family. She compared her upbringing in the religious denomination to being in a "cult".
A primary tenet of the religion is that the world's destruction is imminent. For Vardy, she has strong memories of having the Armageddon belief forced upon her, recalling "upsetting" images depicting the end of the world shown to her from a young age. She said they still cause her nightmares as an adult.
But this isn't the primary trauma of her childhood, Vardy said in a new documentary Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me.
Vardy said she was sexually abused at the age of 12, and that the abuse continued on and off over a period of three years. She alleged it was not a family member, but a person in their community.
"From the age of around 12 years old I was being abused and instead of being supported I was blamed," she said. "It was explained that I could potentially bring shame upon my family."
Vardy then alleged the abuse had been covered up by "elders", referring to senior male religious leaders. When it came to telling her mother, Vardy said that was one of the most painful aspects of it all.
"I told my mum about the abuse that I was experiencing. She cried, but didn't believe me. I told numerous members of my family, Jehovah's Witness community, and they called a meeting. I think I was about 15. It was suggested that I had misinterpreted the abuse for a form of affection," Vardy recounted.
Back in 2019 on the UK talk show This Morning, Vardy said her turbulent young adult years reflected what she had endured as a child.
"There's a reason I did things I did, looking back now. When I was a drinking and all sorts of things like that, I didn't see that there was a pattern with what had happened to me when I was younger. I wanted people to understand that I had been through a lot in my childhood."
It was a fear of being judged that particularly impacted Vardy.
"It was a fear of not being believed as well. I did tell my dad and we did go to the police, and I made a statement," she said in the documentary. "But I didn't know what to do with myself and I'd been made to feel like it was my fault, that it was all in my head. It got me in such a state that I withdrew my statement."
At the age of 15, Vardy left the Jehovah's Witnesses. In the years since, Vardy has had no contact with various members of her family, and has been estranged from her mother for seven years.
As for why she chooses to call the Jehovah's Witnesses "a cult", Vardy said for her it comes down to one key factor.
"People are manipulated, brainwashed, it's coercive behaviour and it is handed down from generation to generation," she said to The Mail on Sunday recently. "Once you're in it, it's so hard to see the bigger picture, which is that it's wrong and immoral."
Now with her five kids of her own, Vardy said she finds it "incomprehensible" that any parent wouldn't support their child if they had been through a similar ordeal as she did.
"I find it so difficult to understand how a mother can disbelieve a child — irrespective whether that child is having problems or has become a bit of a terror. It's not until you have children that you really become fiercely protective. My kids are everything."
If this brings up any issues for you, contact Bravehearts, an organisation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, on 1800 272 831.
If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.
Feature Image: Getty/ITV/Mamamia.
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