The model, famous for the Wagtha Christie trial, spoke about her strict upbringing in the religious community in Channel 4 documentary, Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me.
The mother-of-five, 41, was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness in Norwich but left at the age of 15, after she was ‘shamed’ for being sexually abused and was shunned by the community alongside family members following her parents’ divorce.
At the start of the hour-long feature, Vardy recalled a childhood without Christmas or birthday celebrations, in line with the religion’s beliefs, with bible studies and visits to the Kingdom Hall, the religious centre of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
As a child, she said she believed she would die at Armageddon if she was not ‘perfect’ and recalled ‘upsetting’ images shown to her depicting the end of the world, which still cause her nightmares as an adult.
Visiting the Kingdom Hall where her congregation gathered, and where her grandfather was an elder, Vardy said: ‘You would have to do things to keep Jehovah happy, because he was always watching.
‘Who you spoke to, how you spoke, how you dressed, how you held yourself, how you conducted every part of your whole life, and we were told if we didn’t pray enough, bad things would happen to us.’
Later in the documentary, Vardy spoke about being ‘blamed’ by her family and members of the Jehovah’s Witness community after being sexually abused as a child.
She said: ‘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.
‘I told my mum about the abuse that I was experiencing. She cried, but didn’t believe me.
‘I told numerous members of my family, Jehovah’s Witness community, and they called a meeting, I think I was about 15, it was suggested that I had misinterpreted the abuse for a form of affection.
Vardy continued: ‘I knew that I hadn’t, I was well aware of what was right and what was wrong, and it was explained that I could bring shame on my family, and I was basically manipulated into believing it wasn’t the best thing to do to take it any further and take it to the police.
‘It’s hard to see how I survived that.’
Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Me is available to stream on All4.
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