Former I’m A Celebrity contestant Iain Lee has claimed he was so badly bullied on the show that he quit showbiz and became a mental health counsellor
Rebekah Vardy has shared a number of screenshots from her texts with former I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here campmate, Iain Lee.
Taking to her Instagram account on Saturday evening, the WAG asked Iain to ‘leave her alone’ as shared a number of text threads from the pair. Alongside the screenshots, she wrote: “Wish this man would just leave me alone. There is only one bully here and it’s not me.”
It comes after Iain, 51, slammed Rebekah, 42, for being a “bully” and “obnoxious” claiming he had a mental breakdown after being on the show with her. The pair were contestants on the hit reality show in 2017 and Iain has claimed that Rebekah made him “f****** miserable,” and that he had to go for therapy after she left him feeling isolated.
Rebekah has been back making headlines with her newspaper column dedicated to the show after Coleen Rooney entered the jungle this year.
In one text exchange from the WAG’s text screenshots, Rebekah reached out to Iain after their stint in the jungle back in 2017. Just days after the pair left the jungle, Rebekah sent Iain a text saying: “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 a follow-up text, she wrote: “You’ve been through an incredible deal in life. I truly hope you manage to sort things with your wife and see your boys.”
In response, Iain confirmed that there were no hard feelings between the pair – a stark contrast to what he has said this week about Rebekah being a ‘bully’. In text text dated on December 17, 2017, 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 hard feelings towards you. You’re pretty amazing.”
Rebeak then shared an Instagram conversation between the pair which dated back to August 2022 when Iain claimed that Rebekah had bullied him in a series of Twitter posts. At the time, Rebekah warned the comedian that she would publish their private text messages where Iain said that he never felt like she bullied him while they were in the jungle together.
Iain subsequently deleted all the posts and asked Rebekah if she would like a public apology. He insisted that he didn’t want to go into why he made the claims on Twitter, but instead said that he felt like he was miserable while in the I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! jungle.
Rebekah’s scathing comments about Coleen have seen her say she hopes she is forced to “eat penis or humble pie” in the jungle. She has also slammed show hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly as “two small-minded men,” and described Coleen as “the gift that keeps on giving” when her canoe capsized during the race to camp.
Discussing his time in the jungle with Rebekah, former comedian Iain 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.”
Iain said the first words Rebekah said to him when he joined the camp as a late arrival were: “I think you’re a f**king t**t.”
He then described how after he won a challenge and got to pick five other contestants to live in luxury with him he “didn’t pick her and that made her angry,” recalling how “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.”
Iain claimed the way he was treated on the show led to him needing therapy when he left and that he ultimately quit showbiz as a result to retrain as a counsellor. He now works helping victims of bullying and 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 [Rebekah] 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. 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 previously denied bullying Iain and after they left the show she said: “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.”
The Mirror has approached Rebekah and Iain’s respective representatives for comment on this story.
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