The look was meant to be angelic…the vibe was pure as driven slush: As Rebekah Vardy still insists ‘justice let me down’, JAN MOIR examines the WAG’s TV grilling
Lemmings hurtle off cliffs without a second thought and rabbits are regularly caught in the headlights of doom. However, if the definition of raw animal stupidity is not Rebekah Vardy in a television interview, her moony visage beaming with pearlescent idiocy as she persists in her claims of innocence, then what is?
‘I will say that until I am blue in the face: I did not do it,’ she said, in an unfortunate choice of metaphor.
Less than a week after losing the £3million High Court defamation case she brought against fellow Wag Coleen Rooney, Mrs Vardy is not giving up.
Yesterday she sallied forth, on to television screens and across newspaper pages, not just to protest her guiltlessness in tearful and dramatic exchanges, but also to insist that the judge is a donkey and the law is an ass – which has given us all plenty to mule over.
Less than a week after losing the £3million High Court defamation case she brought against fellow Wag Coleen Rooney, Mrs Vardy is not giving up, writes Jan Moir
Yesterday she sallied forth, on to television screens and across newspaper pages, not just to protest her guiltlessness in tearful and dramatic exchanges, but also to insist that the judge is a donkey and the law is an ass – which has given us all plenty to mule over.
On Rebekah Vardy: Coleen And Me (TalkTV) she was lightly grilled by a sympathetic but firm Kate McCann and replied in the sorrowful tones of the penitent. ‘I feel let down by a lot of people, a lot of things. But most importantly I feel let down by the legal system,’ she said, wasting no time in presenting herself as the injured party and the real victim.
It was almost as hard to swallow as her fresh claims that because of this self-inflicted ordeal, she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder – how very convenient.
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy also revealed that she has been admitted to hospital for stress on two occasions because of the pressures brought by this trial. Does she deserve our sympathy for this?
Perhaps I could winkle out a few desiccated nuggets of compassion were it not for the suspicion that the vengeful Rebekah has brought all of this upon herself.
And that even in the depths of her suffering she is quick to lay the blame on others, instead of admitting her own accountability.
‘I think we had a judge that didn’t understand the case and didn’t look at everything,’ she said. Elsewhere Coleen was ‘cruel and unkind’ while the Rooney legal team were bullies who ‘attacked’ potential witnesses.
On Rebekah Vardy: Coleen And Me (TalkTV) she was lightly grilled by a sympathetic but firm Kate McCann and replied in the sorrowful tones of the penitent
Even the press coverage of the trial was misogynistic. ‘Women aren’t allowed to defend themselves or dress nicely,’ she claimed sadly.
Throughout the one-hour programme, Mrs Vardy wore an expression of bewildered hurt, beige lipstick and a snow-white Chanel-alike jacket over a pale blouse. The effect was meant to be angelic: the vibe was as pure as the driven slush.
‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ she cheeped, displaying the instinct for tragedy that has been a theme of her life; bad stuff happens, it’s never her fault, see how she hurts.
‘I was meant to be a target,’ she said, later adding: ‘I suffer quite badly from anxiety.’ But who among us does not?
To be fair, not many people would escape feeling a just a little bit stressy after embarking on a vainglorious and expensive bid to clear their name, only to see it end in such laughable ignominy.
Delivering her verdict last Friday, trial judge Mrs Justice Steyn (‘She didn’t know what she was doing’) described Vardy as inconsistent, implausible and not credible, before finding against her.
She ruled that it was ‘likely’ that Vardy’s former agent, Caroline Watt, ‘undertook the direct act’ of passing information to The Sun newspaper. Watt did not appear in court to give evidence, claiming mental health issues of her own. McCann lobbed a killer question, wondering if Vardy thought Watt felt bad or responsible for events. ‘It is not a conversation that we’ve had. It’s not a conversation that I’d want to talk about with her, just purely because of I’m so conscious of her mental wellbeing and you know, how, how it’s affected her as well,’ she sniffed.
‘So you don’t feel let down by her?’ asked McCann. Well, come on, you can’t ask me that,’ said Vardy, smiling.
To be honest, I found that despicable; a breathtaking smear by omission. And typical of the moral evasion and the absence of truth or proper explanation displayed by Vardy in court.
One would have more admiration for both these women if they accepted their own responsibilities instead of blaming vague psychological problems on their mutual predicament. At the very least it does a terrible disservice to those whose lives truly are incapacitated and ruined by mental health issues. At worst it is a display of humbug and hubris in this ongoing, pathetic circus of hurt feelings and miff.
When the Wagatha Christie trial began, it was viewed by most of the public as an entertainment
When the Wagatha Christie trial began, it was viewed by most of the public as an entertainment. Certainly, it was not without its elements of hilarity. In popular culture, footballers’ wives are parodied as women with more money than sense; the pampered partners of high-achieving sportsmen who pause from tanning their implants in Dubai only for a light spot of mansion shopping or child-producing, before investing in some improbable dental veneers.
It is not always correct, but Rebekah and Coleen seemed to play into that caricature, two rich wives duking it out in the High Court over – well, what? Nothing more substantial than who was leaking stories to tabloid newspapers. Mrs Rooney set a trap to unmask the culprit who was revealing details about her private life – and the rest is not history, but a morality tale of our times that is soon to be made into a documentary and a film.
Vardy bought the case to clear her name. From the TalkTV set, which seemed to be in the bar area of a hotel suite – or in a Wag powder room somewhere – Mrs Vardy continued to give the impression of a woman who still thinks she can wing it; that believing in her own innocence will somehow be enough to persuade others that she is the innocent party.
Even after her ‘ordeal’, it still seems not to have sunk in that bringing a case to a British court is a deadly serious business. Rebekah still seems to believe that she is in some kind of celebrity talent contest, or an endurance show like the I’m A Celebrity she once took part in; a spectacle where money and personality and smarts will sway matters her way.
What did she expect? Every action has a consequence and by bringing this to court she has exposed herself to the expressed opinion of others, however hateful they might be. It is a horrible but inescapable facet of the modern world
Remarkably, she still seems to think she has won, even though she has resoundingly lost. How much money, McCann wondered.
‘Legal fees will be dealt with privately. There should be not gloating,’ said Mrs Vardy officiously, from the trench-deep hole she keeps on digging. And of course, as a result of the case, the claimant is complaining that people are being nasty to her on social media. Also that she has received death threats and that abusers mutter insults in the street.
What did she expect? Every action has a consequence and by bringing this to court she has exposed herself to the expressed opinion of others, however hateful they might be. It is a horrible but inescapable facet of the modern world.
If she had won, we can only presume that it would be Mrs Rooney facing the abuse.
When Mrs Justice Steyn delivered her verdict, one might have hoped that was the end of the Wagatha Christie affair. Now it seems clear that for Rebekah Vardy, it is only the beginning
When Mrs Justice Steyn delivered her verdict, one might have hoped that was the end of the Wagatha Christie affair. Now it seems clear that for Rebekah Vardy, it is only the beginning. The open wound of her suffering and the running sores of her victimhood continue to blur the line between her delusion and what the rest of us think.
In the end, does any of it matter? Perhaps she has decided that she has gone so far, she cannot turn back now – and maybe she is right.
Television offers are pouring in, and if she is to be painted as a panto character, then why not embrace it? ‘I was made out to be the bad guy, and unfortunately I took the character of the villain,’ she said last night.
Since she became a Wag, the hardy Vardy has monetised her online existence. Why stop now? By selling the stories, by bringing this case, by losing and by accusing, she has trashed her own reputation and sold her soul. Stand by your television sets to see how she invests the proceeds.
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