Rebekah Vardy 'was sexually abused aged 12' in her Jehovah's Witness family, with attack 'covered up by church elders'
14 May 2023, 09:38 | Updated: 14 May 2023, 09:44
Rebekah Vardy has claimed she was sexually abused as a 12-year-old girl by a member of her tight-knit Jehovah's Witness community.
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Ms Vardy, the wife of Jamie Vardy and a media personality, left the Jehovah's Witness community she was raised in at the age of 15 in Norwich after she was "shamed" for the sexual abuse, she has claimed.
She was shunned by the community alongside family members after her parents got divorced.
Mother-of-five Ms Vardy, 41, said she was sexually abused by an individual in the community between the ages of 12 to 15, which she claimed was covered up by "elders", senior male religious leaders.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination with about 8.5 million followers worldwide, which believes the destruction of the world is imminent.
They impose a strict moral code on members, including that homosexuality is a sin, and punishes those who deviate from their beliefs by "disfellowshipping" them, ostracising them from the community.
Ms Vardy made the claims in a documentary about the Jehovah's Witnesses that airs on Tuesday.
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In the documentary Ms Vardy returns to Norwich, where several members of her family still live as Jehovah's Witnesses, and with whom she has had little contact since leaving the community.
She says: "I was brought up in a strict and controlling religious organisation.
"What happened to me during my childhood still affects me every single day.
"From the age of around 12 years old I was being abused and instead of being supported I was blamed, manipulated into believing it wasn't the best thing to take it to the police.
"I told my mum about the abuse that I was experiencing. She cried, but didn't believe me.
"I told numerous members of my family, Jehovah's Witness community, and they called a meeting, I think I was about 15, it was suggested that I had misinterpreted the abuse for a form of affection.
"I knew that I hadn't, I was well aware of what was right and what was wrong, and it was explained that I could bring shame on my family, and I was basically manipulated into believing it wasn't the best thing to do to take it any further and take it to the police.
"It's hard to see how I survived that."
Ms Vardy recalls a childhood without Christmas or birthday celebrations, in line with the religion's beliefs, with bible studies and visits to the Kingdom Hall, the religious centre of worship for Jehovah's Witnesses.
As a child Ms Vardy said she believed she would die at Armageddon if she was not "perfect" and recalls "upsetting" images shown to her depicting the end of the world, which still cause her nightmares as an adult.
Visiting the Kingdom Hall where her congregation gathered, and where her grandfather was an elder, Ms Vardy said: "You would have to do things to keep Jehovah happy, because he was always watching.
"Who you spoke to, how you spoke, how you dressed, how you held yourself, how you conducted every part of your whole life, and we were told if we didn't pray enough, bad things would happen to us."
Ms Vardy said she always knew her family was different, from an early age, their faith causing her to be bullied and picked on at school.
At home her parents' relationship was difficult, with elders regularly called to their home to "calm down" arguments.
When Ms Vardy was 11, she said, her family were shunned by the community after her parents' divorce.
Ms Vardy said relatives and friends were forbidden from associating with her family, which contributed to her "resentment" of religion and her parents.
"I think that's where my real resentment to religion started, was being made to feel so bad, so different."
During the documentary Ms Vardy also meets former members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, including a victim of child abuse and the mother of a man who died by suicide after being expelled by the organisation.
Ms Vardy described the experience of revisiting her past as an "emotional rollercoaster".
She told reporters: "I had closed Pandora's box and didn't want to revisit that.
"I went into this thinking this was going to be quite easy and actually, wow, it was a real challenge.
"It was an emotional rollercoaster.
"I have never been so open and personal about my experiences but also to discover other people who had been through similar experiences, witnessed similar things, if not worse, and to hear their stories, I just think they're incredibly brave for being prepared to speak out."
Asked whether making the documentary had given her closure on what she experienced as a child, Ms Vardy said: "Definitely. I think this chapter has closed...
"Knowing that I had a voice, knowing that my voice could help and hopefully there will be more people who come forward to share their experiences."
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A spokesperson for the Jehovah's Witnesses said: "Courts have rejected the allegation that disfellowshipping and so-called shunning results in social isolation and discrimination.
"And it is simply misleading and discriminatory to imply that our religion is controlling."
The spokesperson also said that church elders are told to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the authorities immediately, even if there is only one complainant.
They added that it is "false and offensive" to imply that they block the authorities from investigating.
But the spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases.
Ms Vardy has made headlines in recent years for the 'Wagatha Christie' case, in which Colleen Rooney, wife of Jamie's fellow professional Wayne Rooney, accused her of leaking stories to the media.
'What's Rebekah Vardy got an agent for?!'
The libel case unfolded in 2019 when Ms Rooney accused Ms Vardy of selling stories about her and her football star husband Wayne.
Ms Rooney shared false stories about herself across her online accounts which only Ms Vardy or her representatives could see.
Ms Vardy lost her High Court defamation claim against Ms Rooney over the accusation and was left with a £1.5m legal bill.
However, Ms Vardy has always denied selling Ms Rooney’s stories to the press. The highly-publicised row went on to be made into a West End musical as well as a TV drama.
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah's Witnesses and Me, airs on Channel 4 at 10pm on May 16.
