Kate Ferdinand has revealed she feels “secure” in her bond with her husband Rio’s children, as she spoke candidly about life as a stepmother.
The former TOWIE star, 31, co-parents Lorenz, 14, Tate, 12, and Tia, 10, who had Rio, 42, with his late wife Rebecca Ellison.
She has since welcomed son Cree, two, with the footballer and is pregnant with her second biological child, a baby girl.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, with Kate previously admitting that she secretly cried while learning to be a stepmother.
She has now told The sun: ‘ It takes a while to get to know people after so much trauma and everything that happened.
‘I worked so hard for their love’: Kate Ferdinand has revealed she feels ‘secure’ in her bond with her husband Rio’s children as she spoke candidly about life as a stepmother
“Growing old isn’t made up of big, compelling moments. It’s a lot of little things you do all the time. And it takes time to build that bond and relationship. But now I feel safe.’
Kate added: ‘I love them all exactly the same, but the love is formed in different ways. It’s hard to explain, but because I’ve worked so hard for their love, it’s an extra special love.’
It comes after the reality star recalled being mistaken for her husband Rio’s late wife Rebecca when she discussed their early relationship.
Kate admitted that she felt “like a side chick” when they first started dating in 2017, two years after Rebecca tragically passed away from breast cancer at the age of 35.
Speaking of her Blended podcast, Kate and Rio talked about her difficulties when everyone mentioned Rebecca when the footballer talked about his wife.
She explained, “I’m sure, but what used to happen was I dated you, we might have been engaged, but I wasn’t your wife.” So when you talk about your wife, everyone says Rebecca.’
Recalling how a famous person recently called her Rebecca, Kate said she felt “like a side chick” at the beginning of their relationship.
She added, “I kind of felt like being this side woman, I felt like a damn good girl taking care of your three kids.” Everyone said your wife, your wife, your wife.
Blended family: The former TOWIE star, 31, co-parents Lorenz, 14, Tate, 12, and Tia, 10, who had Rio, 42, with his late wife Rebecca Ellison
Disturbing: Rebecca Ellison tragically died of breast cancer in 2015 at age 35
“Now I’m your wife, I feel very safe and yes, the wedding has changed a lot for me, so I can deal with things like now.”
The TV personality and the footballer got married in 2019 in an extravagant wedding ceremony in Turkey, after two years of dating.
Elsewhere, Kate revealed she didn’t realize ‘what she was getting herself into’ when she was met with his late wife Rebecca’s belongings “all over the place” and his three children “rebellious.”
After spending time dating, the couple decided to take the next step and let Kate move into the family home – which was very difficult.
“I never realized what I was getting into until I got to this house. We were in love, going out, dating. I hadn’t really experienced you being a stepmom, your life or the loss you went through,” she said.
“It wasn’t until I got here that I thought “s**t this is going to be hard”.’
Rio told her, “I hadn’t changed anything in the house at that point. Nothing had changed. The fact that I took you into that. I wasn’t thinking about your feelings, maybe I was just in a bubble. I didn’t think about things in the bathroom like shower gel.’
Kate replied, “You hadn’t moved anything, we had this whirlwind romance, it was all beautiful and flowers everywhere and then I stepped into your house.”
“Nothing had been taken from Rebecca, so all her things were in the same place and I just came in.
‘It was really hard. I felt like I was having an out of body experience. My mother thought I had gone a little crazy. I started asking myself, is this really what I think it was? I just didn’t even know if I was letting myself in.”