From ‘bully’ to bawler: Rebekah Vardy’s time on I’m A Celeb was something

As Rebekah Vardy bashes Coleen Rooney and every other cast member in this year’s I’m A Celeb, there’s never been a better time for a walk down memory lane to look at her crowning achievements in the Australian jungle.

Two years after the landmark Wagatha Christie trial saw Rebekah Vardy slapped with a hefty £3 million payout, which covered both her and Coleen’s legal fees, the WAG is back for round two as Coleen Rooney is safely tucked away from her Twitter account as part of the 2024 I’m A Celeb cast. Already, she has shared her thoughts on every cast member.

Despite earlier calling out Coleen’s hypocrisy for going on the show after allegedly slating her appearance, Rebekah herself has clearly forgotten the less-than-stellar experience she had.

The WAG joined the I’m A Celeb universe in 2017

Cast your mind back to 2017 when the likes of Georgia Toffolo, Jamie Lomas, Iain Lee, Amir Khan, and Vanessa White were competing on I’m A Celeb. Rebekah Vardy was also there, but you might have forgotten.

Coleen is no doubt getting through the jungle with that cushy £1.5 million in mind, but how much was her arch-rival paid during her stint? A lot less.

The highest-paid celebrity of that year was Amir Khan with a respectable £250k, with reports suggesting that Rebekah’s was considerably less at £100k.

How did she score in the challenges?

The bushtucker trials, and the animals that man them, are a staple of the ITV reality TV show, so how did Rebekah Vardy do under pressure?

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Rebekah was largely cool as a cucumber as she undertook the challenges, earning a combined total of 27 stars out of the maximum 30. The only challenge she skipped was eating one, and that was due to her fish allergy.

She was kicked from the jungle third

Though some have speculated that Coleen Rooney could go on to win the show if she manages to fight attention away from the likes of GK Barry, only time will tell whether she is able to beat Rebekah in the long game.

After Jack Maynard, Shappi Khorsandi, and Kezia Dugdale had been kicked from the show in 2017, Rebekah Vardy was voted off third, coming 9th overall.

Rebekah Vardy was branded a ‘bully’ in the show

One of the biggest controversies of the 2017 cast saw comedian Iain Lee’s late arrival send shockwaves through the camp in an era that is now collectively called Strawberrygate. The drama started when Iain and Amir chose to eat the strawberries and cream they had won during a challenge.

Though it was Amir’s idea initially, he claimed that Iain had spearheaded the conspiracy so they could eat them all themselves. Iain was isolated from his campmates as a result, with many viewers arguing that Rebekah was particularly cruel to him.

“He is going in there to win and he is playing the sympathy card and he isolates himself from the rest of the camp and then as soon as the cameras are on he wants the limelight,” she said during the episode.

When challenged on the bullying allegations by Ant and Dec, she broke down and argued: “You know what, I was the one that was being the most supportive of him. A bully? I’ve never been a bully in my whole entire life.”

Taking to Twitter in response, Iain did not hold back as scathed: “She encouraged people not to talk to me and left me isolated (apart from two campmates who were not taken in by her). When she came out of the camp, she told lies about me. She bullied my sister who was staying in Australia and told her, ‘In my world, men don’t cry’.”

Of course, Rebekah blamed “the edit” and claimed she didn’t have anything nasty to say about her former campmate.

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