Rebekah Vardy’s ex-husband has branded her “fame hungry” who will say and do anything for money.
Steve Clarke, 59, who was married to Vardy for just over a year, said she is desperate to stay in the spotlight and is “100 per cent” jealous of her WAG rival Coleen Rooney.
He told MailOnline: ‘She’s just desperate to stay relevant and keep her name in the news.
“It’s pretty pathetic what she’s doing, commenting that I’m a celebrity,” but it shows that she’s very jealous of Coleen. I can guarantee you 100 million percent that she just wants people to keep seeing her picture and her name.’
He added: “When you look at Coleen, she’s all smiles and happy. People like her, but when Rebekah was in the jungle people talked about her resting bitch face. She just can’t stand people like Colleen and the public have no sympathy for her.
Mr Clarke was speaking as Vardy reignited a war of words with WAG rival Coleen in a scathing column, I’m a Celebrity, for a national newspaper in which he made a series of scathing comments.
Vardy wrote that he hoped Rooney would be forced to “eat penis or humility pie” in the jungle before more recently criticizing BBCRadio 1 presenter Dean McCullough for “getting close” to Rooney on the show in another blistering attack.
Vardy, 42, also branded hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly “two narrow-minded men” and described Coleen as “the gift that keeps on giving” after her canoe capsized during the celebrities’ race to the camp.
Steve Clarke, 59, was married to Rebekah Vardy for just over a year
Rebekah Vardy and her husband Jamie Vardy leave the Royal Courts of Justice, May 2022
Clarke said his ex-wife is desperate to stay in the spotlight and is “100 per cent” jealous of her WAG rival Coleen Rooney (pictured).
Clarke, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, had a bitter split from Rebekah in 2005. They met in 2001, when she was working as a secretary at his timeshare company. He owned a fleet of expensive cars, including a Ferrari.
They lived in Oxford, London and later Cyprus.
He said: ‘When we moved to Cyprus, she wanted the best of everything. A nanny for his daughters, a new car and a bigger and better villa. She always wanted more.
‘I feel sorry for Jamie Vardy. If he earned £1m a month, she would spend £1.5m. She really is a nightmare.’
He was Vardy’s second husband after her marriage to electrician Mark Godden.
Clarke, now a director of a health and wellness company, claimed Vardy is motivated by jealousy of Rooney.
He said: ‘You can see how Rebekah is so jealous of Coleen and is in her shadow. He must hate that Coleen has made a name for herself and not just being Mrs. Wayne Rooney.
‘She is independent, while Rebekah is only relevant because she is married to a Premier League footballer. That is why she has registered the name Wagatha Christie because, even if she has lost, she can make some money from it.’
He admitted there is no love between him and his ex and Vardy alleges he was abusive, a claim he vehemently denies.
She said she suspects he is making comments on the show I’m a Celebrity for money.
Clarke told MailOnline she feels “sorry” for her new husband Jamie and said: “She really is a nightmare.”
According to her ex-husband, Vardy “is very jealous of Coleen and is in her shadow.”
Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen (pictured on October 7) met as teenagers at their Croxteth council estate in Liverpool.
Rebekah Vardy and former Premier League star Dennis Wise on I’m A Celebrity in 2017
He added: “Let’s face it, she has a huge legal bill to pay so she needs the money.” Knowing her, she’ll try to keep paying Coleen for as long as she can. She was humiliated at trial and the public can see through her and what she is.’
Vardy once controversially claimed that Mr Clarke “forced” her to do a newspaper interview about a one-night stand she had with pop star Peter Andre. Rooney’s legal team contacted him during the now famous ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial, but he refused to get involved.
Speaking of their marriage, Vardy said: “That quickly turned into a horrible relationship – I was afraid of it.” He would tell me what to do, where to be and how to act.
‘I had a night with Peter Andre at the end of my first marriage and I stupidly told him. He wanted the money, so he made me go public with my story. I felt terrible.’
They had an on-again, off-again relationship and married when she was 23 years old and eight months pregnant with another man.
Weeks later, she had her oldest daughter, Megan.
Vardy said: ‘As soon as she was born she made us move abroad. He claimed he owed money and wanted us to go to Cyprus. From there everything went downhill. He became violent with me. He cheated, he lied. It lasted ten months before I escaped back to the UK with my baby after he cheated on me.
Weeks later, Clarke was sentenced to two years in jail following his conviction for causing death by careless driving in a head-on crash that killed a father and grandfather.
Mrs Vardy had son Taylor with footballer Luke Foster before meeting Jamie, 37, whom she married in May 2016.