Rebekah Vardy (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Miranda, previously Nicholson; born 17 February 1982) is an English media personality married to the English football player

Jamie Vardy Jamie Richard Vardy (''né'' Gill; born 11 January 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Leicester City. Regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Vardy is known for his prolific goalscoring aided ...

. She was a contestant on '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2017 and on ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their profe ...

'' in 2021. In 2022, she lost a well-publicised libel case against

Coleen Rooney Coleen Mary Rooney ( McLoughlin; born 3 April 1986) is the wife of former English footballer Wayne Rooney. She is also a former television personality. Early life and family Coleen Mary McLoughlin was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, to Tony an ...

, dubbed the "

Wagatha Christie ''Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney'', which is popularly known as the Wagatha Christie trial, was a libel case between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney, two British wives of footballers (WAGs). The dispute began in 2019, when Rooney accused Vardy ...

" trial. It was determined that Vardy did play a role in leaking fabricated stories about Rooney to '' The Sun'', a British tabloid.

Personal life

Vardy was born in Norwich and in a variety of interviews, most recently in 2020 claimed she had been forced to grow up too soon after being abused as a child and made homeless at 15. Her parents – Carlos and Alison – divorced when she was 11 and she moved from city to city, living in Norwich, Reading and Oxford as both moved on to new relationships. At 17, she met electrician Mark Godden and later married him in Mexico. In 2014, whilst working as a nightclub promoter, Vardy met the footballer

. They married on 25 May 2016 at

Peckforton Castle Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Herit ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. Vardy has five children from three different relationships: a daughter (born 2005); a son (born 2010), with footballer

Luke Foster Luke James Foster (born 8 September 1985) was an English professional footballer who last played as a defender for Northern Premier League Division One East club Loughborough Dynamo. Foster started his career as a trainee with Sheffield We ...

; and daughter (born 2014), son (born 2017) and daughter (born 2019) with current husband Jamie Vardy. She is also stepmother to Jamie's daughter from a previous relationship. Vardy's father, Carlos Miranda, was born in

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, making Vardy half-

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Television

In November 2017, Vardy was a contestant on the seventeenth series of the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

reality TV show '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!''. Vardy was the third celebrity to be eliminated on 4 December 2017. Vardy has made multiple appearances as a guest panellist and presenter on ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...

''. She has also appeared on '' Good Morning Britain'', ''

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio personality, presenter, broadcaster and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guest ...

'' and '' This Morning''. In 2019, Vardy appeared in two episodes of ''

Celebrity Gogglebox ''Gogglebox'' is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for thei ...

'' alongside husband

Jamie Jamie is a unisex name. It is a diminutive form of James or, more rarely, other names. It is also given as a name in its own right. People Female * Jamie Anne Allman (born 1977), American actress * Jamie Babbit (born 1970), American film and te ...

, and an episode of ''How To Spend it Well at Christmas'' in 2019 alongside her family. In September 2020, it was announced that she would be competing in the thirteenth series of ''

'' in 2021. She was partnered with Andy Buchanan and was eliminated in week 6.

Charity work

Rebekah and Jamie Vardy are both Family ambassadors to Barnardo's. Vardy is also a patron of The Dorothy Goodman School in Leicestershire. She has supported Leicester based homeless charity 'Homelessness to Hope' having officially opened The Hope Centre and has supported the Jeans for Genes charity campaign. Vardy supported the family of Alfie Evans, an infant boy from Liverpool with a then-undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder, in their campaign to have him sent abroad for further treatment.

Libel trial against Coleen Rooney

On 9 October 2019,

, the wife of another footballer,

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

, made a Twitter post alleging that posts from her private

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account were being leaked to the newspaper '' The Sun''. Rooney said that, to catch who was selling the stories, she had restricted access on who could see the posts. She stated that the only viewer of these posts was Vardy's account. This Tweet went viral, being dubbed the 'Wagatha Christie', a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsWAG and mystery writer

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

. Vardy responded on her own Twitter account, denying the claims and stating that her Instagram had been hacked. In June 2020, Vardy sued Rooney for defamation. Although Vardy won a preliminary stage in the case in November 2020, in July 2022, following the full trial, the judge ruled against Vardy and determined that Rooney's claims were "substantially true". The judge described Vardy as "an untrustworthy witness" and found that she probably worked with her agent to leak stories about Rooney to the press. Vardy said she was sad and disappointed with the decision, but stated she would not appeal. In October 2022, Vardy was ordered by the court to pay 90% of Rooney's legal costs, which was reported to be a higher proportion than is usual in such cases. The judge made this decision partly because Vardy had been found to have destroyed relevant evidence prior to the trial. As a result, Vardy was ordered to make an immediate payment to Rooney of £800,000 with the remainder to be assessed with the maximum amount set at £1.5m. Vardy's own legal costs were estimated to have been a similar figure, resulting in the total cost for Vardy of the litigation she commenced but lost being potentially around £3m.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vardy, Rebekah 1982 births Living people English female models English people of Portuguese descent Association footballers' wives and girlfriends English television personalities I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants Media personalities from Norwich