In my two decades as a showbusiness reporter, I have been on the receiving end of so many verbal blows from aggrieved, acid-tongued celebrities and their publicists that very little can upset me now. But even I was stunned when footballer’s wife and one half of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ saga Rebekah Vardy unleashed a grubby tirade against me.
‘Stick to s***ing off executives,’ she spat in an Instagram post, ‘in an attempt to step up on the career ladder. Clearly you were not good at that either.’
Charming – not least for being a slur often used to undermine successful women. Ironic, too, coming from someone who, in 2004, did a ‘kiss-and-tell’ interview likening the penis of singer Peter Andre to a ‘chipolata’.
So it is no surprise to see Rebekah spraying her bile in a new newspaper column. The 42-year-old mother-of-six has signed up to a red-top tabloid to write about I’m A Celebrity… where it appears her main role is to sling insults at her rival, Coleen Rooney, who is winning over the show’s eight million viewers.
Their feud famously began in 2019 when Coleen placed a bombshell post on social media accusing Rebekah of leaking personal stories to the Press. Rebekah sued Coleen for libel and lost spectacularly. Ruling in favour of Coleen, the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn called much of Rebekah’s evidence ‘evasive or implausible’.
Thankfully, my run-in with Rebekah didn’t trouble the courts. In August, I had written that she and Lauryn Goodman – the former mistress of England footballer Kyle Walker – had formed an alliance. After all, Rebekah and Lauryn had spoken openly about their friendship. I wrote that Rebekah had been advising Lauryn after she revealed the married Manchester City player was the father of both her children.
But the morning the piece was published, Rebekah posted her vile message on Instagram stories, meaning it would vanish after 24 hours.
‘Oh Katie Hind you really picked the wrong person today,’ she wrote. ‘I’m sick of your needy clickbait, nonsensical attempt at journalism and pure lies.’ Not true, I stand by every word.
Rebekah Vardy now has a red-top tabloid newspaper column, in which she has been slinging insults at Coleen Rooney
Then came that malicious slur about my career, followed by: ‘Far more newsworthy articles to be written about but then that would take a brain wouldn’t it.’
Nasty words indeed, but Rebekah has plenty more in her barrel as I’m A Celeb fans are finding out.
In an interview to promote her new job with the same red-top she leaked her stories to, Rebekah – who was in the jungle herself in 2017 – wasted no time attacking Coleen. Asked if there was anything she would like to see her fellow Wag eat, Rebekah replied: ‘Yeah, penis. Or humble pie.’ The next leading question – would a camel testicle be the worst thing Coleen’s ever had in her mouth? – prompted the response: ‘I don’t know. You have to look at her husband for that one.’
She also, staggeringly, accused Coleen of wanting to be her. She raged against her rival: ‘If you want to fan the fire, the flames are going to get higher. I wasn’t going to carry on talking about this, I had no intention of talking about it, but she clearly can’t let it go. We’ve done a book, we’ve done a documentary, we’re going into the jungle. What’s next? Dancing On Ice? She’s following in my footsteps. I think she always wanted my life.’
Then, in her first column, Rebekah branded Coleen ‘the gift that keeps on giving’ after her canoe capsized during the celebrities’ race to the camp.
Others on the show have also felt the lash of her tongue. She said of radio presenter Dean McCullough: ‘Oh my God. Dean exhausted me. He was like this little kid on Christmas Day.’
Coleen Rooney, left, with content creator GK Barry on this year’s series of I’m A Celebrity
Rebekah Vardy was evicted from the I’m A Celebrity jungle in the 2017 series of the ITV show
And hosts Ant and Dec, who have joked about the Wagatha Christie case, were dismissed as two small-minded men’.
So why is Rebekah so determined to insult anyone in her path? One reason, perhaps, is money. I’m told that her newspaper deal is in the region of £30,000, but it’s peanuts compared to the £1.6 million she has to pay Coleen’s lawyers, having lost the Wagatha Christie case.
‘Perhaps she thought she might as well make a few quid out of Coleen as pin money,’ one friend said. Still, she and Premier League footballer Jamie, who earns £150,000 a week from Leicester City, insist their finances are healthy.
So if not money, what? I can only assume Rebekah is addicted to the attention. It was she who brought the libel trial, to be conducted in full public glare, while surely knowing she’d be outed as the mole. In Rebekah’s world, there’s no such thing as bad publicity if it keeps her in the public eye. Trust me, I’ve seen it up close.
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She finished off her rant about me by saying I was ‘first in line, begging like a child for an interview… well, no more.’
On that, she did have a point. I asked (not begged) her for an interview in 2017 and she practically bit my hand off, demanding £5,000 and inviting me to her home in Lincolnshire. I duly walked up her drive, past a fleet of Range Rovers, and met Caroline Watt, her then-agent, who before the trial apparently lost her phone in the North Sea, containing – it was alleged – incriminating messages.
Caroline warned me her client might not be the friendliest of interviewees. I was also told to remove my shoes.
I greeted Rebekah with a smile but her response was frosty. Not even a courteous hello. She looked me up and down before she sent me off to play with her daughter Sofia, then two, until she was ready.
When she finally sat down, Rebekah waxed lyrical about her vegetable patch, of all things. She clearly wanted to be seen as a down-to-earth, homely wife with family values – ‘a normal person who cares for her kids’, as she put it – not just another ‘diva’ Wag.
Before I left, I was told to make everyone a cup of tea. I vowed never to set foot in the house again. So no, Rebekah, I didn’t ask for another interview. And I never will. And as for you, Coleen, buckle up! This bumpy ride is far from over.