Vardys’ gym fire drama at £2.5m mansion
JAMIE and Rebekah Vardy’s home gym full of ‘state of the art’ equipment has been destroyed by a fire.
The blaze broke out in the large wooden outbuilding purpose-built by the footballer at his multimillion-pound barn conversion for the couple to work out in.
Firefighters were called to the rural property near Grantham, Lincolnshire, which Vardy bought for £2.5million in 2016, on Thursday afternoon.
Four crews, police and a helicopter rushed to the scene due to the size of the blaze.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said 90 per cent of the building was destroyed, as well as all of the equipment inside.
It is understood Vardy, 36, who plays for Leicester City, returned home to emergency services at the scene. They had been called by builders working at the property who discovered the blaze.
Mrs Vardy, 40, was not at home at the time. She is currently away filming a Channel 4 documentary about Jehovah’s Witnesses. The couple’s children were also not there. No one was injured. It is thought the blaze was started by an electrical fault.
The couple, who married in 2016, have three children together. Vardy has one daughter from a previous relationship while Mrs Vardy has a daughter and a son from two previous relationships.
A source said: ‘It was a really big fire. It caused a lot of damage.
‘The building is destroyed. It will cost a lot to put right – the gym equipment was all state of the art, it would have cost thousands.’ During lockdown, Mrs Vardy posted a picture of the couple working out together at the gym.
Last night Mrs Vardy posted a picture on Instagram of two of her children in a fire engine. She wrote: ‘Every cloud and all that. Thankfully no one was hurt... buildings and contents are replaceable and the kiddies enjoyed the fire engines.’
She also thanked Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue for being ‘so brilliant’.
The fire follows on from what was a difficult year for Mrs Vardy in 2022.
In July she lost a High Court libel case against Coleen Rooney, 36, wife of former England footballer Wayne Rooney.
The dispute began in 2019, when Mrs Rooney accused Mrs Vardy of leaking posts from her private account to The Sun newspaper.
Mrs Vardy subsequently sued Mrs Rooney for libel and the trial began in May last year.
However, a judge ruled in favour of Mrs Rooney, and Mrs Vardy was later ordered to pay 90 per cent of her legal fees, estimated to total around £1.5million.
‘Equipment cost thousands’