Kate Ferdinand has detailed how she was “naive” becoming a step-parent in her husband Rio Ferdinand ’s family as her step-children grieved the loss of their mum.
Rebecca Ellison died in 2015, aged 34, after a short battle with breast cancer, tragically leaving Rio with their three children Tate, 13, Lorenz, 15, and Tia, 10.
The former TOWIE star, 30, met her 43-year-old former footballer husband in 2017 and has since welcomed son Cree during the coronavirus lockdown.
Kate appeared on Wednesday’s instalment of Loose Women to discuss the first episode of her new podcast Blended.
Host Jane Moore kicked off the chat, saying: “When I look at what you stepped into - three children grieving the loss of their mum and Rio obviously lost his wife - you didn’t have any kids of your own and stepped into that situation - it must have been incredibly tricky.”
Kate replied saying she was “quite naive” stepping into the situation, adding: “I thought, I’ll be fine.”
She said: “I didn’t really take into consideration the dynamics. I’ve learnt that I'm very resilient and to have a big heart can get you very far in life.”
Later in their conversation, she described the lack of advice available for mothers in her situation, who are “dealing with lots of grief”.
She added: “I wanted to start a community because I feel like when you share a problem, it helps take the pressure off.”
The ITV studio chat turned to Mother’s Day, as Kate detailed on the first episode of her podcast how she feels “alone and guilty” on the day as she struggles to celebrate when her step-children have suffered “such a deep loss”.
Kate told the Loose Women panellists of the day: “It was my first year being a biological parent and so it’s really exciting and overwhelming when you become a mother, but also everyone in my house has had such a big loss, so it’s trying to balance those emotions - it’s hard.”
Kate said on her podcast that she “really, really struggled” with the celebratory day even before she was a biological parent due to the family's tragic loss and “somehow I thought it would be easier when I had Cree but actually last year was probably the toughest Mother's Day to date”.
"It's a strange feeling the world is celebrating this day and there is a real big loss in my house but also it was my first Mother's Day - a day in another life that I would really look forward to, but here I am surrounded by my family", the reality star continued.
"How can I have the audacity to celebrate myself when all my family have had such a deep loss?
"I felt really alone and quite isolated. I didn't know anyone in a similar situation or going through the same sort of thing as me."
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV
