Steve Clarke, Rebekah Vardy’s ex-husband, has denied allegations that he ‘forced’ her to talk about a one-night stand with Peter Andre.

A comment about Peter’s nether regions resurfaced on the first day of the Wagatha Christie libel trial.

Rebakah, 40, who is now married to footballer Jamie Vardy, had dismissed Peter’s manhood as a mere ‘chipolata’ in 2004.

Coleen Rooney’s barrister David Sherborn quizzed her about the comment under cross-examination.

Rebekah claimed she had been coerced into the ‘kiss-and-tell’ interview with the News of the World by her ex-husband, the Mirror reported.

She said she was “forced into a situation” by Steve Clarke, before later adding she “was in a terrible, terrible relationship. The consequences of not doing something were far worse than doing it”.

However in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Steve vowed to clear his name and challenged Vardy’s courtroom assertion that he was an abusive partner and forced her to do the interview.

Steve had just hired Vardy at his Oxfordshire timeshare firm when the one-night stand with the Mysterious Girl pop star happened.

“Rebekah was chatty, fun and pretty, but I didn’t know much more until everyone started talking about her spending the night with Peter,” he told the Mail.

“She had told colleagues and it became the talk of the office, within a week of it happening, everybody knew what had happened. She could not keep it quiet.”

He started dating Vardy in 2001, while she was separated from her first husband, and they got married in 2005 but it only lasted a year before splitting up.

Regarding the kiss-and-tell story, Steve says that Rebekah spotted an appeal for stories on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, which the Australian singer was signed up for.

When questioning her motives for the article by her partner, she allegedly replied “it would be a bit of money” for her and “it would be funny”.

Steve alleges that his only involvement with the interview was to drop Vardy to a south-west London studio and pick her up once finished.

Vardy also made the claims of Steve’s abuse and coerciveness during a 2017 interview with The Sun on Sunday.

Steve complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which was upheld.

The 57-year-old also insists he “never raised a hand” to Vardy during their relationship.

If, like us, you love a good dose of celebrity gossip then we’ve got you covered.

From Lorraine Kelly and Janey Godley to Gordon Ramsay and Sir Rod Stewart, our weekly Showbiz newsletter is packed with the latest news on your favourite stars from Scotland and beyond.

Signing up couldn’t be easier! Simply enter your email address in the box further up the page or click here to view our wide range of newsletters.

“I was never abusive towards Becky, I was never controlling,” he said. “She did what she wanted, when she wanted and I never raised a hand to her either.

“The false claims against me have been upsetting me, my family and friends.”

Rebekah, who was eight months pregnant with another man’s child when she married Steve, is said to have pushed for a more lavish lifestyle during their relationship and wanted to move to London before it broke down in January 2006.

He added: “I fell out of love with her and I knew it was over. I felt like I was being used for my money. I felt like I was the pay cheque.”

The so-called Wagatha Christie trial is due to Vardy’s legal action after Rooney, 36, accused her of leaking private stories about her to The Sun newspaper.

Rooney went public with her allegations in a bombshell tweet in October 2019 where she claimed to have carried out a months-long ‘sting-operation’ using her personal Instagram.

The trial ended on Thursday and a judgement is expected in the summer.

Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – sign up to our daily newsletter here .