Kate Ferdinand has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting ‘I could have picked a lot easier man.’
Former TOWIE star Kate, 35, co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son Cree, five.
She has been open about the challenges of raising a blended family, and her relationship with the teenagers after their mother Rebecca tragically died from breast cancer in 2015 aged just 34.
Kate was 25 when she started dating Rio in 2016, and soon gave up her reality star life to devote herself to being a step mum. The couple married in 2019.
She was joined by Rio on a live Blended chat where the couple were asked by co-host Cilla Kessie what they think the public’s perception of their relationship has been over the past decade.
‘People think I’m a gold digger, I’m with him for money. I’m basically his nanny that he doesn’t pay,’ Kate admitted.
Kate Ferdinand has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting ‘I could have picked a lot easier man.’
She added though that she feels secure enough in her marriage not to rise to the claims, insisting: ‘I always say if I wanted to pick a rich man I could have picked a lot easier one without all the kids. If it was just a money thing, it’s true though.’
‘I’m here because I love you, there are great things and there are hard things.’
Rio also came under the spotlight as he was asked if he ever feels guilty for ‘snatching Kate out of her life and bringing her into this domestic world and she’s carrying with her all the criticisms and difficulties’.
‘I’ve thought about that a lot,’ Rio said, adding to Kate. ‘There have been big issues that have happened, especially on where I have thought your life could be so much more simple without me, and without us.’
‘As much pain and hard yards we have brought to her life, I think it balances out the goodness we have brought to her life as well. But I do appreciate the stress we have brought to her life as well.’
Rio admitted that going from losing his late wife Rebecca to creating a blended family with Kate ‘wasn’t a smooth transition. I had to adapt a lot but big things.’
‘Rebecca died, I became a single parent but I had my mum there, my mum became that mother figure but then my mum died quickly after and I then became a single parent but then Kate arrived. So I never got into a mad rhythm, I didn’t get into a two year rhythm, we morphed. It was change, adapt.’
‘The thing I had to open up to, and it can make or break the whole situation, is allowing Kate to parent.’
‘When you’ve got kids and someone new is coming in, you have to give them the space to parent and trust them but set the boundaries too. “This is how I parent, this is what we do, now let’s see your version”. I can’t just dictate. It’s been a really open back and forth.’
Former TOWIE star Kate co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son Cree, five
She was joined by Rio on a live Blended chat where the couple were asked by co host Cilla Kessie what they think the public’s perception of their relationship has been over the past decade
In the latest episode of the Blended podcast Rio helped out with viewer dilemmas and offered insight into having children with a new partner after already being a dad.
The ex footballer admitted that when he met Kate ‘I’d made my mind up. When I met you, I was like, three kids. I didn’t even want a relationship, let alone kids.’
‘We ended up here, babe,’ Kate pointed out.
‘But you then adapt to the circumstances,’ he explained. ‘And so, okay. We’re now seeing each other. We are in love. You’re young. You want kids, you want your own kids as well biologically.’
‘I was like well I don’t really want kids but I love her so I’ve just got to go ahead with it and I wouldn’t change it now you know what I mean.’
‘Something that drives you to making that decision and changing your mind is that look at what she’s putting herself through for me and the kids and I’m going to go “I can’t no?” I couldn’t do that.’
