Moment Rebekah Vardy is stonewalled as she attempts to confront Jehovah's ... trends now
Rebekah Vardy was stonewalled as she attempted to confront 'elders' at the Jehovah's Witnesses' £150m UK headquarters about her childhood sexual abuse.
The 41-year-old claimed her own mother didn't believe she was sexually abused aged 12 and alleges it was covered up by senior male leaders within the religious group.
In a new documentary the mother-of-five went directly to the religion's sprawling Essex headquarters. But upon her arrival no one answered the intercom and then she was put on hold when she called.
Speaking in Channel 4's 'Rebekah Vardy: Jehovah's Witnesses and Me', she said: 'I think they've intentionally put me hold knowing I'm outside with the hope that I'll just go away.'
After a long wait, Mrs Vardy is swiftly told that no one is available to talk to her about her experiences in the church as a child.
Rebekah Vardy was stonewalled as she attempted to confront 'elders' at the Jehovah's Witnesses' £150m UK headquarters about her childhood sexual abuse
Rebekah with her father. Mrs Vardy says she and her family were shunned by the community following her parents' divorce
She reveals she feels 'quite a bit of guilt' for speaking out against the religion. She believes the feeling of guilt comes from her strict religious childhood, where she was taught not to question the church.
'I didn't make this out of revenge I was looking for answer as to what happened in my childhood. Unfortunately those answers haven't been forthcoming.'
Mrs Vardy, married to Premier League star Jamie Vardy, also interviews other former Jehovah's Witnesses.
A mother told a sad story of her son becoming a Witness aged 19 after meeting an American woman online.
Julia said her son Lewis returned to the UK after seven years in the US and was under pressure to earn money for his wife and get her a visa.
Soon the stress of working two jobs to make ends meet caused him to start self-harming, and Julia had to report him as a missing person several times.
She claimed that he took up smoking to deal with his anxiety and, when he could not give up within the timeframe specified by the church he was 'disfellowshipped' and shunned by the community.
She calims they gave him a 'couple of weeks to give up smoking or they were kicking him out' and that they were 'more worried he was smoking' than about his self-harm.
Soon after he hanged himself, and wrote in his diary: 'If I stay alive, I'll carry on letting Jehovah down.'
The church would not comment on the case but denied in a statement that their beliefs or the 'so-called shunning' could contribute to suicide.
Julia said her son Lewis returned to the UK after seven years in the US and was under pressure to earn money for his wife and get her a visa
Tough: Speaking to Good Morning Britain she added that she has 'no relationship' with her mother, after being thrown out of her home aged 16
Ex-Jehovah's Witness Ali Millar, who left the religion in 2009, said: 'They have such a clever disconnect between who they are publicly and who they are privately.
She
