Rebekah Vardy has opened up about her troubled relationship with her mother on Good Morning Britain this morning.
The 41-year-old appeared on GMB on Tuesday to discuss her upcoming Channel 4 documentary 'Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah's Witnesses and Me'.
The star spoke to hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls about her experience growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, as she alleges in a Channel 4 documentary that the religion failed to support her through sexual abuse as a child.
Speaking about her childhood, she said: "I found this part of my life as a bit of an obstacle, but I wanted to use this obstacle to create an opportunity to help other people that have been in similar situations and just hopefully show that there's light at the end of the tunnel."
The wife of Leicester and England footballer Jamie Vardy was raised in the religion in Norwich, Norfolk, but left the community the age of 15, after she claims she was "shamed" for the sexual abuse.
Speaking on Tuesday she said: "I had a fear of bringing shame onto my family, I was controlled and ultimately, I was scared of what the consequences of speaking out would actually do."
Mother-of-five Vardy, 41, claimed she was sexually abused by an individual in the community between the ages of 11 to 15, which she claimed was covered up by 'elders', senior male religious leaders.
Speaking about her experience she said: "Honestly, I felt like I was dealing with this myself, I feel like I've dealt with this myself for literally my whole entire life.
"Looking back on my childhood it was really different, I felt isolated, I felt alone, I was bullied quite badly as a child because we were made to feel different, we weren't allowed to be seen as the same as everyone else, the same as what Jehova's witnesses call worldly people, we had to stand out from everyone else.
"I lost so much time in my childhood because of this religion, it wasn't pleasant."
Speaking on the decision to open up to her mother about her abuse, she said: "I don't have a relationship with my mum, the breakdown over the relationship with my mum was ultimately the abuse and not being believed, when you take something like that to one of your parents is the most harrowing experience.
"The after-effects of that led me to becoming a bit of a rebellious teenager, and looking back it's not surprising.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination with about 8.5 million followers worldwide, which believes the destruction of the world is imminent.
The religion imposes a strict moral code on members, including that homosexuality is a sin, and punishes those who deviate from their beliefs by 'disfellowshipping' them, ostracising them from the community.
In the documentary, the WAG returns to Norwich, where several members of her family still live as Jehovah's Witnesses, and with whom she has had little contact since leaving the community.
She recalls a childhood without Christmas or birthday celebrations, in line with the religion's beliefs, with bible studies and visits to the Kingdom Hall, the religious centre of worship for Jehovah's Witnesses.
Visiting the Kingdom Hall where her congregation gathered, and where her grandfather was an elder, Vardy said: "You would have to do things to keep Jehovah happy, because he was always watching.
"Who you spoke to, how you spoke, how you dressed, how you held yourself, how you conducted every part of your whole life, and we were told if we didn't pray enough, bad things would happen to us."
When the star was 11, she said, she claims her family were shunned by the community after her parents' divorce.
Vardy claimed relatives and friends were forbidden from associating with her family, which contributed to her 'resentment' of all types of organised religion and her parents.
During the documentary, Rebekah also meets former members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, including a victim of child abuse and the mother of a man who died by suicide after being expelled by the organisation.
Vardy described the experience of revisiting her past as an 'emotional rollercoaster'.
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