It was a cry of frustration sent from one embattled WAG to another – and one never intended to be made public.
Indeed, when Annie Kilner, wife of England star Kyle Walker, sent Rebekah Vardy a flippant, exasperated message in December last year to say she wanted her husband’s former mistress ‘dead’, the very last thing she expected was that it would find its way onto the front page of a red-top newspaper.
That it did last week reveals much about Annie’s trusting nature – and perhaps more about Rebekah’s seemingly endless ability to somehow get involved with making bad situations worse.
Surely, one can’t help but think, a woman fresh out of the humiliating and expensive experience that was the Wagatha Christie trial would steer clear of meddling in the affairs of yet another footballer’s wife.
But it seems not even losing a fortune in legal damages to Coleen Rooney – not to mention the incalculable loss in reputation after being exposed as the person who leaked stories about Coleen to the Press – has taught Rebekah anything at all.
Rebekah Vardy, 41, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, is fresh out of the humiliating and expensive experience that was the Wagatha Christie trial
Rebekah with Kyle Walker’s wife Annie Kilner, right, at an England match against Panama during the 2018 World Cup
When Annie sent Rebekah, 41, the rage-filled messages in question, she believed the wife of Leicester City striker Jamie was a shoulder to cry on, after learning that her husband had had an affair with reality TV star Lauryn Goodman.
She and Rebekah had been friends for some years at the time.
‘She is going to be hated by the time I’ve finished,’ wrote Annie in the messages. ‘I want her dead.
‘She’s gna [SIC] get back under her rock soon. When i speak. Slag,’ she added.
In an attempt to make Annie feel better, Rebekah is then thought to have shared her sadness that the stories about Kyle were plastered across all the newspapers – yet somehow the very same messages from Annie have been passed onto her new best friend, Lauryn.
I’m told that Lauryn – who by this point had two children by Kyle, Kairo, four, and Kinara, one – was furious. She apparently contemplated going to the police for what she saw as a threat against her safety by Annie, seemingly oblivious as to why the WAG might be so cross with her, before being talked out of it.
Then, last week – just two months after Lauryn hired Rebekah’s publicist – those angry messages from Annie appeared in The Sun newspaper.
Rebekah arrives with husband Jamie at the Royal Courts of Justice in London during the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial
Coleen Rooney pictured with husband Wayne as they leave court. Coleen accused Rebekah of leaking false stories about her private life to the Press
While it isn’t known whether Rebekah was aware that the messages would ultimately be made public in such a fashion, Annie was left upset that her one-time friend had broken her trust.
Friends of Annie’s then quickly briefed the Press that her messages had, indeed, been sent to Rebekah. It is not known how they then appeared in The Sun.
One can only imagine what Rebekah’s long-suffering husband Jamie must be thinking – especially as his wife has just been given 21 days to hand over a further £100,000 instalment in legal costs to Coleen Rooney, in their latest court salvo.
And that’s after paying out an estimated £3million already, covering Rebekah’s own legal costs and those of Coleen.
All this, must put a dent in the Vardy family finances – especially, as I can reveal, a U.S. soccer team into which Jamie made a significant investment went bust last year, citing an ‘unsustainable business model’.
The club, the Rochester Rhinos, based in New York, was where the former England striker hoped to spend his twilight footballing years.
So with financial matters likely being at the forefront of the Vardy household, why would Rebekah get herself entangled in the drama of yet another ‘WAG war’?
Rebekah has lost a fortune in legal damages to Coleen as well as an incalculable loss in reputation after being exposed as the person who leaked stories about Coleen to the Press
My question is perhaps all the more timely because Wednesday saw the five-year anniversary of Coleen publishing her now infamous post, detailing her investigations after she had a feeling someone she knew had been leaking stories about her to The Sun.
Suspecting the culprit, she blocked all her other followers and posted a series of false stories, including that her basement had flooded, to see if they would make their way into the newspaper. Coleen wrote: ‘And you know what, they did! I have saved and screen-shotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It’s … Rebekah Vardy’s account.’
That single tweet, more than two years later, saw the two women take sides in court. For most, it would have been the most chastening lesson. Not so, however, for the brash mother-of-five – who had spent much of her youth trying to social climb, by dating increasingly prominent celebrities and footballers before landing the ultimate prize – the £140,000-a-week superstar striker Jamie Vardy.
One friend tells me: ‘With Becky, it’s like she’s climbing a ladder to the sky – she doesn’t know what she wants, she just wants to get higher. There’s no end point.’
It’s hard not to conclude that few women, seem to have levels of self-restraint quite as low as Rebekah.
‘She’s clearly got a short memory – or else, she just can’t help herself,’ one associate of the star tells me. ‘She blamed the papers for her downfall, but she’s the problem. Time and time again.
‘Surely, though, there’s enough going on in her own life to keep her entertained.’
Indeed, the day after her private messages with Annie Kilner were somehow leaked to the newspaper, Rebekah was back on the front page of The Sun, with a story on how she would imminently be in court, in a bid to reduce the legal bill owed to rival Coleen.
But her latest legal bid – at further expense – was to prove unsuccessful. Coleen’s lawyer Robin Dunne said Rebekah’s lawyers were trying to give the impression Coleen ‘has been profligate in her spending on this litigation’, but said it gave a ‘misleading and factually inaccurate’ account.
For his wife to have to hand over yet more money must be highly aggravating for Jamie Vardy.
‘Surely he must be getting tired of it,’ mused a former friend of the star to me.
Perhaps it’s little wonder that he apparently retreats to his ‘man cave’ at the couple’s £3 million family home in Lincolnshire. There, he has a full-size snooker table where he passes the hours.
‘Jamie must feel like he has got the weight of the world on his shoulders,’ said the friend. ‘It’s just drama after drama.’
And seeing his investment in the Rochester Rhinos bomb after it had been announced to significant fanfare just two years ago must be a huge disappointment.
Because while he is still scoring for Leicester, he is 37 – his next contract may be less lucrative.
‘There’s no getting away from it – they owe a lorryload of money and Jamie is the only breadwinner at the moment,’ says a source.
‘Realistically it’s going to be up to Jamie to keep bringing home the bacon, and that might mean he has to make a move for cash rather than one he’d like, while he still has the legs in him. It’s a terrible mess.’
As the judges made clear this week, Rebekah’s legal bills are not going away.
As one source puts it to me: ‘She’s pretty shameless. She owes an absolute fortune, but brags about her lovely life all over Instagram. You wonder if she has any self-awareness whatsoever.
‘She’s been very silly. And it’s difficult to see what she has gained from any of it.’
