This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Is there still no such thing as bad publicity? There are probably a few names in recent history who would beg to differ, however, to her credit, Rebekah Vardy – one half of 2022’s “Wagatha Christie” trial – doesn’t appear to be among them.
By way of a refresher, that is Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Jamie (a real-life Roy of the Rovers fantasy figure, with his journey from non-league English football to Premiership heights), sometime reality TV star (I’m a Celeb…, Dancing on Ice) and now forever notorious in the Royal Courts of Justice after she sued Coleen Rooney over allegations she had leaked her fellow Wag’s private messages to the press. In a nutshell, Vardy lost and was ordered to cough up £1.4m in costs. Then, last September, with her husband signing to play for Italian club Cremonese, she moved her young family abroad to start a new chapter: that of a Wag in exile.
Which is harder to deal with, I wonder, for such a self-respecting media personality: daily scrutiny in the British press, or almost complete anonymity in the boutiques and boulevards of Milan? Equally, how does such a self-respecting media personality keep her brand buoyant from overseas?
Answer, perhaps to both, is The Vardys, a reality TV show, that, a few weeks short of the World Cup, includes its fair share of Jamie’s footballing peaks and troughs, along with the customary family jeopardy of will-they-won’t-they find a place to live in time for the start of the season. For such otherworldly problems, see also The “Réal” Beckhams (their move to Madrid, 2003) or, for something truly mind-boggling, the travails of Cristiano Ronaldo’s fiancée in the humbly titled I Am Georgina (Riyadh, 2023). Against both of these “intimate portraits”, Rebekah and Jamie Vardy appear remarkably down to earth.
Vardy even came into the RT offices last week to discuss the show, and I can confirm that, contrary to the “resting b*tch face” she says she’s tagged with by the UK press, she was very smiley, pleasant company, clearly thriving in her new ex-pat life – what I would call the calm after the storm and what she called “a rest and reset”. As she described the premise for the show, “We had something new to talk about.”
While the money, lifestyle and attention rests solely on the prowess of Jamie’s still-fast feet and his remarkable backstory, the series reveals the Vardys have three ordinary, but blessed, things going for them. The first is family – four children, whose school timetables are as important as match fixtures. The second is longtime friends, with the arrival of Jamie’s Sheffield pals injecting some much-needed energy into the room. And the third, in a world of Wag marital chaos, is the strength of the Vardy union, demonstrably tested and not found lacking.
Of course, all this normality is against the backdrop of a reported £30,000 weekly wage, journeys home on private jets and the fact that it could all change tomorrow if the feet fail. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but Rebekah Vardy is, among many things, game. For example, how does she keep smiling on the football terraces while thousands of rival fans chant, “Jamie Vardy, your wife’s a grass,” and worse?
“I remind myself that I’ve put myself in that situation, because I’m there to support my husband,” she says, adding: “It comes from a place of resilience. No one’s free from criticism. We just have to take the good with the bad.”
Amid all the money and mayhem, something, then, we can all relate to.
The Vardys begins on Tuesday 2 June at 9.00pm on ITV1
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