Becky Vardy launches vodka brand with unlikely football star and says booze is inspired by husband Jamie’s own recipe
WHILE her arch-nemesis contemplates crushed cockroach smoothies Down Under, Becky Vardy is enjoying a far nicer tipple – vodka.
The Wag, married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, is about to launch a range of booze after teaming up with a campmate from her own time in the jungle, Dennis Wise.
The pair became pals after bonding on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! in 2017 and are now business partners.
Sales of their alcoholic beverage will benefit a cyber-bullying charity.
And naturally, canny Becky is hosting the official launch party for her drink just as her famished rival Coleen Rooney faces creepy-crawlies and Bushtucker trials.
Becky’s leap into spirits was inspired by Jamie’s love of Skittles- infused vodka creations.
The Sun jungle columnist, 42, explains: “He used to do this brew a long time ago. He’d get a bottle of vodka and we’d get creative and put sweets in.”
Jamie’s tipple — which has now been developed and refined into Becky and Dennis’s SK-TL vodka, in lemon, strawberry and orange flavours — fuelled celebrations after Leicester City’s Premier League win in 2016.
Recalling the historic game, in which Chelsea drew with Spurs to hand Leicester the title, Becky says: “It was the most incredible thing.
‘Important to give back’
“It’s coming up to ten years now and I still don’t think I have the words to put into context those feelings of elation. Jamie had been in a tattoo parlour getting about six hours of work done.
“Idiot! Only my husband would do something like that.
“Back at home, I remember at one point he was just sitting on the floor with a couple of the dogs watching the game and the atmosphere was really low. Deflated was what I could call it.
“Then Eden Hazard scored his goal for Chelsea and it went crazy.”
Becky continued: “The roads got shut down outside our old house because so many fans gathered in the street.
“The police had to close them because it just wasn’t safe. It was insane, just crazy.
“And then the vodka came out and the party started.”
Speaking of parties, Becky, Jamie and Dennis have enjoyed their fair share.
In his 2016 autobiography, The Boy From Nowhere, former England star Jamie revealed he drank six shots of port in a Lucozade bottle the night before each club game — and Red Bull on the day,
And Dennis recalled how he ended up in the back of a police van during a memorable night out following Wimbledon’s historic 1988 FA Cup win over Liverpool at Wembley.
He says: “We’d got on it because we won. We ended up in Trafalgar Square. It must have been about 6am. We knew we had to get to the Cannizaro hotel, but didn’t know how to get there.
“Out of nowhere, this policeman came along. He realised we were stuck, so ended up giving us a lift to the hotel in Wimbledon in the back of his van.”
Meanwhile, it was during a much quieter night in for Becky and Dennis, along with Jamie and Dennis’s wife Claire, that the idea of launching their own vodka brand was born.
Pursuing their dream, the pair teamed up with footballer Tim Cahill and Julie Anne Quay, who sits on the Fifa diploma of club management board, before joining forces with Lee Jeffries — the owner of Drinks Chef, a Leicestershire-based beverage maker.
“We went into his lab and went through loads of tasting scenarios before we got what we thought was the right one,” Becky explains.
“I’d created a few at home, which hadn’t been that great.
“I made one that was like a lemon mixed with something and it just reminded me of the vomit fruit I ate in the jungle. Disgusting home-brewed vomit fruit.”
The close friendship Becky and Dennis have forged from their time together in the jungle is clear to see.
Dennis tells me: “Look, if Becky makes mistakes, she doesn’t care.
“And she always comes off brilliantly. She’s a strong-minded young lady — and I haven’t been paid by her to say this!”
Jamie used to do this brew ages ago with vodka and Skittles. We want a charity to benefit from sales, one that educates people to deal with cyber bullying
Becky
The pair are now in the process of lining up the charity that will benefit from sales of SK-TL.
Becky says: “We wanted to choose an anti-bullying charity, one that educates children, young people and adults to deal with the onslaught of cyber bullying online. Both of us just wanted to make sure we give something back.
“We are in really privileged positions, which both of us, all of us, are eternally grateful for, and you can never take that for granted.
“Equally, lots of other people aren’t in the same situation.
“It teaches our children a lesson, too. That you can make some money but that it is always important to give back.”
Becky and Dennis have also filmed a Willy Wonka-inspired social media advert for SK-TL, which sees Becky persuading the former Chelsea ace to dress up in a skin-tight neon outfit to hand out shots they created in the lab.
“There’s a lot of products on the market and a lot of people in the public eye put their names to things,” Becky says.
“But actually, we’ve gone one step further and put our faces to it as well. We got fully involved in the designs, the tasting and the PR plan behind it.
“Dennis and I just wanted to have fun with it.”
Fans of the duo can expect a jungle reunion when the pair formally launch SK-TL on Wednesday at a posh party in central London.
“I was out with Jamie Lomas and Toff [Georgia Toffolo] for dinner the other night and I invited them to the launch,” Dennis says.
‘A spicy series’
“Toff is away, unfortunately, but I spoke to her fiancé James Watt, who founded the beer firm BrewDog, and he’s really interested, so we’re sending them some bottles.”
Becky adds: “I still speak to Stanley Johnson from the jungle quite a bit.
“Contrary to what everyone says about Stanley, I love him.
“He really got me through the show at times because of his incredible stories.
“The whole place would go quiet when he spoke because he intrigues you with what he has to say and he has a way of telling a story.”
Becky and Dennis were caught up in a bullying storm in 2017 when the pair were accused of ganging up on former broadcaster and fellow campmate Iain Lee in the jungle.
They denied this was the case after leaving the show, and Iain said the word bullying was “a bit strong”.
Dennis says: “We had a nice group and we enjoyed it. It was made to look like a spicy series when it wasn’t.
“When all of us came out, what we saw was completely different from our actual experience there.
“You live and die by it when you walk in there. And I’m sure there’s a few things that are going to happen this year which are going to be intriguing . . .
“I think Barry McGuigan is brilliant.”
Dennis adds: “I get a lot of messages about it from Becks. I’ve not seen much because I’ve been in Indonesia.
“I’m saving them for a wet weekend.”
Whether that’s because of the rain, or the booze, remains to be seen.