Dark secret drove me to brink...
Friend reveals how Rebekah made suicide bid at 14 after sexual abuse
REBEKAH Vardy was driven to the teenage suicide bid she revealed on I’m A Celeb by sexual abuse from a family friend, a pal has revealed.
The WAG, 35, made her shock revelation while discussing depression with her campmates on the hit ITV show.
A close pal said she spiralled into a dark place after being abused and tried to end her life when she was just 14.
“He didn’t rape her,” they said. “But he would grab her boobs, he tried to shove his hands down her trousers if he could.
“There was a time he was trying to grab her behind a bush. She started drinking, getting into fights at school, became the black sheep of the family. Then she tried to take an overdose.”
Luckily Rebekah, now married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, was found by a rescuer and forced to vomit – but her problems did not end there.
Her pal said: “When she tried to tell her mum she was kicked out because she didn’t believe her.” In the past, Rebekah has said: “It was a terrible time. I feel sorry for my mum for not having more strength to believe in me, I know I would have believed my girls.”
The friend said Rebekah feared she would end up homeless but another pal let her sleep on her sofa and found her work in the local pub as a glass collector.
In Tuesday night’s episode of I’m A Celeb, Rebekah said she lived a car-crash life for years afterwards and did not face up to her troubles until suffering from postnatal depression.
Impressing and irritating viewers in equal measure, she is proving to be one of the strongest characters on the show.
But you would expect no less from a woman who’s dragged herself up by the bootstraps from life on a council estate, and as an abused teen, to become a Premier League WAG.
Rebekah has admitted she went off the rails after mum Alison split with her window cleaner dad John when she was 11 and the family were living in Oxfordshire.
When the abuse began at 13, she drank even more heavily. “She drank a lot and made bad choices,” said the friend. “She blamed herself but realises with hindsight she was young and damaged.” Aged 18 and working in a pub in Witney, Oxon, Rebekah met Mark Godden and they were married in 2001 – but divorced in 2003. As they split she had a night of passion with singer Peter Andre. Last week Godden, 38, told the Mirror: “She moved into a promotions job and said she had an overnight job in London. That’s when she slept with Andre. I was still married to her and got such a ribbing at work.” Yesterday, the friend said: “She only married him because he took her in and was nice to her. She knows she shouldn’t have.” Rebekah then got together with her boss at a timeshare company, Steve Clarke, which she has admitted was a big mistake. They
When she tried to tell her mum she was kicked out because she didn’t believe her CLOSE FRIEND OF REBEKAH ON REACTION WHEN SHE SOUGHT HELP
wed in 2005, while she was eight months pregnant with daughter Megan, now 11, by another man. She has claimed Clarke was abusive and controlling, making them move to Cyprus. Rebekah fled to the UK with her baby after 10 months of marriage. It was only after second child Taylor, now six, by non-league footballer Luke Foster, that Rebekah started to address her depression. Speaking in the jungle on Tuesday, she said: “I had really bad postnatal depression... It’s like Pandora’s box opens and when it opens you have to deal with it.”
The pal said Rebekah suffered “suicidal thoughts” again after Taylor was born.
She recovered with the help of Cognitive Behav- ioural Therapy, counselling and antidepressants. She met Jamie in 2014 and they wed in May last year. But despite his millions, she still shops in Costco and posts pictures of her stretch marks. After she showed off her “mum-tum” in a revealing photoshoot, BBC radio presenter Dame Jenni Murray hailed her a feminist heroine. After a tough time with relationships, Rebekah has found the love of her life in Jamie, with whom she has Sofia, two, and Finlay, 10 months. They have been hailed as a more down-to-earth Posh and Becks. And after the extraordinary life Rebekah has lived and the troubles she has already overcome, the jungle should prove to be no trial at all.
Listen to all the podcasts, including jungle queen Vicky Pattison, at mirror. co.uk/jungle