Rebekah Vardy has said that she no longer has a contact with her mother because she was not believed when she told her that she had undergone sexual assault as a youngster.
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me, a new Channel 4 documentary, investigates the TV star’s childhood growing up in a Jehovah’s Witness community.
In the video, the 41-year-old speaks to other ex-members of the church and recounts a horrible trauma she went through when she was younger, saying she was sexually molested when she was 12 years old.
Rebekah told co-hosts Ed Balls, 56, and Susanna Reid, 52, on Tuesday’s Good Morning Britain that she was afraid of ‘bringing shame’ to her family and was’scared’ of the implications of coming out.
The previous I’m A Celebrity… I need to get out of here! The actress, who is married to professional footballer Jamie Vardy, also discussed the absence of a connection she now has with her mother.
Opening up about her experiences, she said: ‘At the time I was obviously still young. I didn’t know any different. I didn’t know what I know now. But looking back at my childhood, yeah it was really different. I felt isolated, I felt lonely.
‘I was bullied quite badly as a child because we were made to feel different. We weren’t allowed to be seen as the same as everyone else. The same as what Jehovah’s Witnesses call “worldly people”. We had to stand out from everyone else and have really strong faiths. I lost so much time in my childhood because of this religion and it wasn’t pleasant.’
When Susanna inquired if this was to blame for the deterioration of her relationship with her mother, Rebekah responded:
‘No, I don’t have a relationship with my mum. The breakdown over the relationship with my mum was ultimately the abuse, and not being believed when you take something like that to one of your parents.
‘It’s the most harrowing experience and the effects, the after-effects of that led to me becoming a bit of a crazy, rebellious teenager and looking back, it’s not surprising.’
The media celebrity stated that if she could give her previous self advice, she would tell her to ‘keep battling,’ emphasising that ‘the truth will come out in the end,’ and pushing her to ‘never give up’.
Rebekah breaks down in tears in her documentary as she talks about how much her children mean to her.
She shares three children with Jamie – Sofia, nine, Finley, six, and Olivia, four – and also has two children from previous relationships – Megan, 18, and Taylor, 11.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV. Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4.
Source My Celebrity Life.
