She wanted to take her own life at just 14.
Rebekah Vardy broke down in tears in a new Channel 4 documentary about her life growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness.
She spoke about how she was sexually abused when she was 12 years old and claimed it was covered up by senior male religious leaders, known as “elders”.
She said she told her mother about the abuse but she didn’t believe it, revealing: “Nobody valued me enough to protect me.”
The Channel 4 documentary titled Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me aired on Monday night, May 15th.
In it, she discussed her traumatic life growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness and revealed that the religion failed to support her through being sexual abused.
She said: “I told my mum about the abuse that I was experiencing. She cried, but didn’t believe me.
“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.”
The documentary looked deep into the life of the famous WAG who also revealed that she wanted to end her life at 14 years old.
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She hopes her story will give hope to other victims.
Rebekah appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday to speak about the documentary.
She said she was homeless at the age of 15 because her claims of abuse were not believed.
She said: “The breakdown in our relationship was the abuse and not being believed.”
Vardy was raised in Norwich until she left at 15 years old. She was shamed following the abuse and her parents were shunned from the Jehovah’s Witnesses community after their divorce.
She said she chose not to speak about the abuse because she was “scared of the consequences” and feared that it would bring more “shame” on her family.
The 41-year-old mum said she hopes her story will give victims of sexual abuse hope that there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
She went on to say: “I think I realised that I’ve probably only just scratched the surface. I think my story isn’t unique and there’s going to be plenty of others”.
She said she lost so much time as a young person because the religion made her feel “isolated and lonely”.
“We had to stand out from everyone else and have really strong [faith], but I lost so much time in my childhood because of this religion and it wasn’t pleasant,” Rebekah said.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination with about 8.5 million followers worldwide.
Leaders impose strict moral codes on followers including the belief that homosexuality is a sin. They believe that the destruction of the world is imminent and punish followers who veer away from that belief.
