Rebekah Vardy has hit back at her former I’m A Celebrity co-star Iain Lee and claimed he ‘accepted a Christmas hamper’ from her despite his recent comments.
Ex-TalkRadio host Iain, 51, told MailOnline on Saturday, the WAG, 42, was an ‘obnoxious bully’ who made him feel so ‘f**king miserable’ and isolated in the jungle that he had to go into therapy after their 2017 stint on the ITV show.
Sharing a series of messages between herself and Iain, Rebekah said how she ‘wished he would leave me alone’.
In a WhatsApp from December 2017, he had sent: ‘I said constantly I had respect for you and your story and what you’d been through.’
Becky wrote: ‘I have no bad feelings towards you at all. I’m really sad it’s been portrayed the way it has. It’s hurt me.
‘You’ve been through an incredible deal in life. I hope you managed to sort things out with your wife and see your boys.’
Rebekah Vardy has hits back at her former I’m A Celebrity co-star Iain Lee and claimed he ‘accepted a Christmas hamper’ from her despite his recent comments (pictured in 2022)
Iain, 51, told MailOnline the WAG, 42, was an ‘obnoxious bully’ who made him feel so ‘f**king miserable’ and isolated in the jungle that he had to go into therapy after their 2017 stint
Iain replied: ‘I know it has. I’m upset like I say by what was said behind my back those few times but I don’t class it as bullying. And I have no had feelings towards you. You’re pretty amazing.’
In another message from August 2022, Becky contacted the presenter on Instagram after her WhatsApp failed to send.
She wrote: ‘You’ve obviously changed your number as I sent you a WhatsApp but this stops now or I’m just going to publish our WhatsApp exchanges I don’t know what sort of kick you are trying to get out of touting these lies but l ignored it in April yet you are continuing to incite bullying and hate towards me.
‘Funny how you accepted a Christmas hamper from me though isn’t it!’
A screenshot of the WhatsApp, which failed to send, read: ‘lain why are you doing this? You know you are lying about things… you are inciting bullying this has to stop I have all the messages between us that completely contradict your ridiculous claims.
‘Remember the Christmas hamper you accepted from me… this is ridiculous and you are causing me unnecessary pain and upset.
‘Who was the one that kept talking to you all the time in the jungle, who was the one that kept making you eat that told you to be proud to fight for your sons.
‘And as for your sister… where did you make that up from years later. Stop this b******* or I will.’
In a WhatsApp from December 2017, he had sent: ‘I said constantly I had respect for you and your story and what you’d been through’
Becky wrote: ‘I have no bad feelings towards you at all. I’m really sad it’s been portrayed the way it has. It’s hurt me’
In another message from August 2022, Becky contacted the presenter on Instagram after her WhatsApp failed to send
Iain responded: ‘All my tweets have been deleted. ‘I am sorry for the distress caused. I don’t want to get into an argument about why. I was miserable in the jungle’
In another Instagram message, she added: ‘How supportive I was with your situation with your children and wife. It seems your narrative about me is far more exciting than the actual truth.
‘I’ve also never threatened to sue you and never alluded to that so again that narrative is lies.’
Iain responded: ‘Ok I’m sorry about this. I thought I had deleted them. Let me double check.
‘Just explain to me why lain? Why attack me… maybe I would understand more if there was a genuine reason but the last message we had in 2017 was cool,’ Becky replied.
He said: ‘Right. All my tweets have been deleted.
‘I am sorry for the distress caused. I don’t want to get into an argument about why. I was miserable in the jungle and several people played a part in that. I should have let it lie. Again, I am sorry. Want a twitter apology?’
Rebekah‘s post comes after Iain claimed that he suffered a mental breakdown after appearing on the show with her.
She has found herself back in the I’m a Celebrity spotlight despite not being a contestant with a scathing newspaper column about the show in which she has reignited her war of words with Coleen Rooney, who she was locked in a notorious defamation trial with in 2022.
In a series of barbed comments Becky claimed she hoped Coleen is forced to ‘eat penis or humble pie’ in the jungle before more recently slamming BBC Radio 1 presenter Dean McCullough, for ‘cosying up’ to her on the show in another blistering attack.
Rebekah’s post comes after Iain claimed that he suffered a mental breakdown after appearing on the show with her (L-R Kezia Dugdale, Jennie McAlpine, Georgia Toffolo, Rebekah and Iain)
She was accused of treating Iain unfairly in the camp and, after leaving the show, she doubled down by branding the radio presenter ‘fake’
She also branded hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly as ‘two small-minded men’ while describing Coleen as ‘the gift that keeps on giving’ after her canoe capsized during the celebrities’ race to the camp.
Iain, a former broadcaster and comedian, told MailOnline: ‘There are some people who love the notoriety of being outrageous and obnoxious because it keeps them in the spotlight. I think Rebekah Vardy is one of them.
‘When I was on the show, she bullied me and led a clique that picked on me. There were two occasions when I wanted to get out, it was so toxic and dark in there. I thought: “I can’t be with these people.” I don’t watch the show now because of what I experienced.’
He claimed that the first words the WAG said to him when he arrived in the jungle, later than the other contestants were: ‘I think you’re a f**king t**t.’
Iain added: ‘I did a challenge and won. Ant and Dec then asked me to pick five people that would live in relative luxury for the next five days while the others would not.
‘I didn’t pick her and that made her angry. She came up to me, pointed at me and swore at me. It was very intimidating, and it didn’t make me feel very welcome.’
Recalling another occasion when he failed a challenge and burst into tears, he said that Becky said to him: ‘Real men don’t cry.’
Viewers were left horrified by the bullying scandal that involved Becky, Jamie Lomas, Amir Khan and Denis Wise, who were all accused of victimising Iain.
He said: ‘They were all a clique and she [Vardy] led it. I never got any support from her or her group.’
The broadcaster revealed that he was left so devastated by his treatment at the hands of Becky that he had to undergo extensive therapy after leaving the show and that his experience prompted him to change career and retrain as a counsellor.
After leaving his radio job he now works with victims of bullying and helping those who suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.
Iain added: ‘My experience in the jungle led me to change career and become a counsellor. I started seeing a great therapist and work through what happened to me. When I came out of the show I was not all right. It sent me into a spiral of depression and anxiety. It really upset me.
‘I made it known that she [Vardy] made me f**king miserable and isolated when I was in the jungle and was a bully, liar and manipulator. But all that’s in the past now.’
He added: ‘I’ve been able to make peace with it all and put into perspective that the behaviour directed towards me was not my fault. I just never fitted in with what Rebekah Vardy’s idea of a man is. I had to go through this process otherwise it would have eaten me up.’
Rebekah has denied bullying Iain and claimed after leaving the show: ‘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.’
She also insisted in a later newspaper interview that the claims were ‘false.’
After he dissolved into tears and refused to complete a Dingo Dollar challenge due to his crippling fear of heights, Becky said she ‘wouldn’t tolerate’ his behaviour
The WAG added: ‘Edited TV looks a certain way. I don’t have anything bad to say about him.’
But Iain hit back at her denials and said: ‘She has a sense of entitlement. Her attitude is, “You may not like me but I’m going to speak my mind.” But when others try to speak their mind and stand up to her, she doesn’t like it.
‘You can see that when she came out of the show, because she appeared very surprised that the comments about her were negative and she was accused of bullying me.
‘That threw her, and she just became very defensive and tried to shut down any talk about what she had done.’