S Poddar
Rebekah Vardy has claimed she should join this year’s I’m a Celebrity. Get Me Out of Here! as a shock contestant, in the hope of facing off against Coleen Rooney in the jungle. The 42-year-old WAG, who was a star of the series in 2017, hinted at a dramatic re-entry to the series, driven by what she describes as a “revenge plot” against her former rival.
Coleen, 38, has apparently pocketed £1.5m for her appearance on the ITV show after she made headlines when she famously fell out with Rebekah over the high-profile “Wagatha Christie” libel case of 2022. Others on the bill include Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse, McFly’s Danny Jones, and TikTok hitman GK Barry.
Speaking to The Sun, Rebekah teased the possibility of an explosive reunion. “If people really want us to meet up before that, then ITV should get me in that jungle as a special guest. What are they scared of? Confrontation? Isn’t that what the show’s all about? It’s about viewing figures,” she said.
Rebekah also turned the tables on Coleen, labeling it a hypocritical move. “Coleen’s legal team were very dismissive about my reality TV past. They mocked it. So for her to be doing the jungle now, it’s hypocrisy at its finest. I think there was always a plan for reinvention. She stayed out of the public eye for so long.”
Is Jungle Drama Brewing?
While Rebekah has accepted that she would be more than happy to watch Coleen on the show, she said that the footballer’s wife appears rather calculated. “Coleen is quite calculated,” she said, intimated a move by the footballer’s wife for her stay on the show.
Coleen’s appearance follows a courtroom victory in the case of libel she brought against Rebekah, whom she accused of leaking private stories back in 2019. Rebekah, who lost the case and described herself as “devastated” by the outcome, remains warry of potential comments made about her during the programme. Her legal team is reportedly set to pounce if anything defamatory is said on-air.
In her first piece for The Sun, Rebekah spoke out about Coleen’s jungle adventure, joking about the notorious eating challenges. “I hope she has to eat penis or humble pie,” quipped Rebekah, referring to the show’s trend of serving exotic and unappealing dishes. Kangaroo testicles, camel toes, and mouse tails have all been part of previous challenges.
When asked what she’d like to see Coleen eat, Rebekah did not hold back. “Yeah, penis. Or humble pie,” she said. The quick wit didn’t stop there either-with a question of whether a camel testicle might be the worst thing Coleen has ever tasted, Rebekah took a stab saying, “I don’t know. You have to look at her husband for that one.”
Keeping a Distance
While public jabs are coming her way, insiders say Rebekah is taking steps to stay out of the limelight as long as Coleen is turning up on the telly. Before leaving the country on her flight, Rebekah shared an Instagram story with a picture of herself sitting in first-class, captioning it “Fleeing the country [laughing emoji].
Rebekah’s husband, Jamie Vardy, has arranged a trip to Dubai for the couple to get her away from the media scrum, an insider told. “Jamie is whisking Becky away for a week during the I’m a Celeb launch,” the source said, adding that Rebekah is dreading the renewed scrutiny the show might bring to the “Wagatha Christie” saga.
Meanwhile, Coleen has already been snapped meeting some of her fellow campmates ahead of the show’s launch. This series is going to be a sizzling one as fans will be trying to guess the chemistry between Coleen and her jungle friends—and whether ITV will agree on Rebekah’s proposal for an action-packed entry.
Only time will tell whether the jungle will surprise us to see a thriller between these two WAGs. Whatever it is, it seems that tensions do not dissipate between Rebekah and Coleen yet.
