Rebekah Vardy says she was "scared to be out in public places" during her legal battle with Coleen Rooney, after receiving up to 100 abusive messages per day and believes she has post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] from their libel trial.
The 40-year-old has spoken out for the first time in a series of interviews since she lost her libel battle against 36-year-old Rooney over a viral social media post three years ago, after a High Court judge found it was "substantially true ". In the original post, Rooney said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.
The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney publicly claimed Vardy’s account was the source behind three stories in The Sun newspaper featuring fake details she had posted on her private Instagram stories. Vardy denied leaking stories to the media and sued her fellow footballer’s wife for libel.
READ MORE: Rebekah Vardy breaks down in tears in first TV interview since losing Wagatha Christie trial
On Friday (July 29) the much-anticipated verdict arrived after both women attended a week-long trial at the High Court in London in May. Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in Rooney’s favour and dismissed the claim against her. The judge said it was “likely” that Mrs Vardy’s agent at the time, Caroline Watt, “undertook the direct act” of passing the information to The Sun.
Speaking to the publication in one of her first interviews since the verdict, Vardy, the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, has said she felt as though her life was “falling apart” and she was exhausted “physically, emotionally and mentally” during the saga dubbed 'Wagatha Christie'.
peaking to The Sun, Vardy said she had been admitted to hospital twice to be treated for mental health issues since the original post in 2019. "I was having serious panic attacks," she said. "I had kidney stones which were brought on by stress, and I just felt like my life was falling apart. Physically, emotionally and mentally it was exhausting."
She added: "It was draining. I had to go to hospital a couple of times because they were really worried about my mental wellbeing. And since the court case, I think I’m probably suffering with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
"I feel physically sick when I talk about the trial and what happened, and I have nightmares. I haven’t gone to get a diagnosis yet but I do know I probably need some more therapy. It’s been a horrible time."
Vardy went on to share: "I think my lowest point was when I was in Dubai trying to get a flight to come home early from holiday. I knew what I was coming back to — I just knew there was going to be spiteful hatred everywhere. Jamie and I were in a shopping mall at the time buying baby clothes, and I just thought, ‘I don’t want to go through this, I don’t want to live like this’. For a split second, I said to Jamie, ‘I feel like I just want to jump off this top floor’."
Vardy also shared how some people "went the extra mile" to abuse her – even linking her with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and membership of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group. She told the publication: "The whole thing has been awful. At its worst, I was worried to be on my own, to leave the house. I was scared to be out in public places.
"Even the smallest things, like going shopping, were horrendous." She continued: "Everyone always says: ‘These people wouldn’t say things to your face’, but actually you do get the odd few that go that extra mile. The abuse I was getting was insane. At the beginning it would be 100 messages a day."
"I was linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, people suggesting I was a member of IS, stuff like that. It was as if I’d murdered someone."
Vardy revealed how she phoned Rooney to confront her about the original post, which was put online in October 2019. "I picked up the phone and I called her and basically said ‘what the f*** is this?’ and her response was quite, I don’t know, quite rude, quite harsh," she said.
"She basically just said, ‘you know what this is?’ And at that point, I really didn’t know what it was. I’d read the words and you know when you read something, and it’s like reading it about someone else. And it’s like, ‘no, surely this is not real. This can’t be real’."
She added: "No one would do something so sinister knowing that they were weaponising a fan base against someone." Despite the decision against her, Vardy said that if she were to see Rooney "in the street tomorrow" she would "ask her if she wanted to go for a Caffe Nero". She added: "Life is too short to be resentful and hold grudges and be bitter towards someone. That is not me. I am not that person."
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