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Rio Ferdinand revealed he would have ended his relationship with Kate if his children had rejected her, admitting he feared doing things "the wrong way" after losing their mother.
Rio Ferdinand has opened up about a deeply personal chapter in his life, admitting he would have walked away from Kate Ferdinand if his three children hadn’t accepted her following the loss of their mother.
The former Manchester United and England defender, now 46, said on the Blended podcast that introducing a new partner after his wife Rebecca Ellison died of cancer in 2015 was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to navigate.
“If my kids had said no, we probably wouldn’t be together now,” Ferdinand admitted. “We were in love, but it was still early enough to say: ‘If they’re not okay, we can’t do this.’”
Rio and Kate began dating in 2016, a year after Rebecca’s passing. They married in 2019 and now share two children—Cree and Shae—in addition to Rio’s three children from his first marriage: Lorenz, Tate, and Tia.
Ferdinand described the importance of introducing Kate slowly: “We brought Kate in as a friend first. She’d be around at friends’ houses or out with us. That way it wasn’t abrupt. Familiarity made it easier to say, ‘Guys, you remember Kate?’”
He warned about the dangers of rushing such steps: “If it’s done wrong, the damage is lasting. I’ve seen it happen in my own family.”
The kids always came first, he emphasized. “They had to be happy. I was in love, but I wouldn’t go forward if they weren’t.”
Rio also spoke about the emotional weight he carried after becoming a widower: “Even going to work made me feel guilty. I couldn’t leave the kids.” But, he added, “You need to care for yourself too. Kids are more resilient than we think.”
He said dating helped him briefly escape the mental load: “Going out gave me some headspace. You're constantly worrying as a dad in grief. It was relief, even for a night.”
On the podcast, he also revealed lingering pain over negative reactions he faced during his time of grief, saying: “I still harbour a lot of it. If they apologised, I’d forgive them, but I struggle to get past it.”
Rio and Kate’s journey was documented in the BBC documentary "Rio and Kate: Becoming a Stepfamily", which explored the emotional challenges of blending a new family amid grief and healing.