Rebekah Vardy has said she feels “let down by the legal system” in her first interview since losing the “Wagatha Christie” libel battle against Coleen Rooney.
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy appears to get emotional in a teaser clip released ahead of an interview with TalkTV.
Last week Vardy, 40, lost a libel battle against 36-year-old Rooney over a viral social media post, after a High Court judge found it was “substantially true”.
In her first interview since the ruling, a tearful Vardy sits down with TalkTV anchor Kate McCann to speak about the verdict.
The former I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! contestant looks towards McCann and says: “Oh come on, you can’t ask me that.”
Later in the preview clip, Vardy can be seen adamantly stating: “I will say that ’til I’m blue in the face. I did not do it.”
She also says: “I feel let down by a lot of people, a lot of things, but most importantly I feel let down by the legal system.”
In the October 2019 social media 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, while Rooney defended the claim on the basis her post was “substantially true”.
In an interview with The Sun published on Tuesday, Vardy says she had confronted Rooney over the latter’s social media post that ended with the words: “It’s ..........Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Vardy said she was on holiday in Dubai on 9 October 2019 when she found out that her former friend Rooney accused her of leaking stories. She said she confronted her by saying: “Coleen, what the f*** is this?”
Vardy also told the newspaper that she has had to increase her security, as she has received up to 100 threatening messages a day and people in the street have called her “disgusting”, a “rat”, and a “troll”.
She added: “The abuse I was getting was insane. At the beginning it would be 100 messages a day. I even got letters sent to my home, and some crazy s*** sent over including letters from psychics.
“I was linked to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, people suggesting I was a member of [terror group] IS, stuff like that. It was as if I’d murdered someone. Every time something happened it was my fault, every time something new broke, it was my fault.”
Vardy continued: “Jamie and everyone was like, ‘Just don’t read it. These are people that have just got nothing better to do with their lives’.
“But my line is, when you bring my family into something, when you subject my children to such vicious and disgusting hatred, it does get my attention and it is hurtful. I’ve had death threats, rape threats, pretty much everything. It’s the pits, really.”
Several people who have sent her online threats have been arrested, she told The Sun.
Both Vardy and Rooney attended a week-long trial at the High Court in London in May, which attracted a huge amount of press attention.
In a much-anticipated ruling on 29 July, Mrs Justice Steyn found in Rooney’s favour and dismissed the claim against her.
It is believed the total legal costs of the case will be in the region of £3 million, most of which will now be borne by Vardy.
As the teaser draws to a close, Vardy suddenly bows her head before looking back up with tears in her eyes.
Rebekah Vardy: Coleen and Me airs on TalkTV on August 3 at 7pm.
