Tate Ferdinand, 17, says he ‘hated’ stepmum Kate and reveals he told lies about her ‘meeting random men’ to dad Rio out of ‘loyalty’ towards his late mother

Tate Ferdinand has revealed his father tried to sabotage his relationship with his stepmother Kate out of his ‘loyalty’ to his late mother.

The 17-year-old actress admitted she lied about ‘meeting random men’ and ‘locking herself and her siblings in a room’ after the 35-year-old former TOWIE star moved into the family home in 2018.

In a candid interview for this week’s issue of Kate’s magazine Blended Tate said he felt ‘so guilty’ about loving Kate because of his loyalty to her mother Rebecca, who tragically died of breast cancer in 2015 when she was just 34.

During the open conversation, Kate and Tate reflected on the ‘hellish journey’ they were on, with Kate admitting there was a time when she ‘hated’ him.

Kate co-parents Tate, 19, Lorenz and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to two daughters Shae and five-year-old son Cree.

Speaking of the ‘jealousy’ felt by children in Rio, Kate retold the story of how a delivery containing a gift to the former footballer led to Tate accusing her of ‘meeting random men on the road’.

In a candid interview on the Kate’s Blended podcast, Tate said he felt ‘so guilty’ about loving Kate because of his loyalty to his mother Rebecca.

Kate said: ‘When I got the call for Rio and the kids were asleep… Someone dropped it on the driver and it was a man.

‘Tate told people I was meeting men on the road when my father wasn’t around. Then a few people thought I met some random guys on the road while Rio was out.’

Tate replied: ‘You had a hater in the house. I used to be very jealous. ‘I’m not jealous, I don’t even know the word, but I will try to interfere in your every business.’

The television personality also revealed how trying to hide a Valentine’s Day balloon delivery from Rio’s children “got out of control” after she started spreading the lie that the children had “locked them in a room”.

‘I said to the kids, ‘Okay, get in that room. I said, ‘Close the door’ because I had a delivery coming up.

‘How did it come about, ‘WIf Dad isn’t there, Kate will lock us in the room.”‘

She later described the ‘huge turmoil’ she felt when people started questioning her if she was ‘doing crazy things’ like locking children in a room.

Recalling his side of the story, Tate said: ‘I was in such a mixed mood. I didn’t know what was happening. D.advertising did not like to surprise us with such things.

‘So it was kind of a weird thing, ‘why am I being told to stay here for five minutes?’ You come back as if nothing happened.’

Tate added that the incident took place during a period of ‘semi-hate’ and that he was playing ‘mind games’, alternating between being loving towards Kate and not speaking to her or even looking at her.

‘I remember hating you. I hated you. And then we can do something good and then I go right back into love mode and then I have to do it. “I almost lie about what I’ve done before to try and save myself from this,” he said.

‘I felt so guilty for loving Kate and loving Kate. I felt guilty on behalf of my mother’s family and my mother.

‘It’s such a strange feeling because part of me really loves her… and then the other part of me thinks: “Oh, there’s loyalty to my mother here, what am I doing?”

Tate said he felt like he was stuck in no man’s land for “a few years” before appreciating the role Kate played in his life.

During the open chat, Kate and Tate reflected on the ‘hellish journey’ they were on and how the devastating loss of her mother caused fractures in the family.

Rebecca, who tragically died of breast cancer in 2015 at the age of 34, leaving behind husband Rio and three children Tate, 17, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15 (taken in 2015)

Kate and her husband Rio co-parent Tate, Lorenz and Tia, and they are also proud parents to two-year-old daughter Shae and five-year-old son Cree.

The young girl said that after losing her beloved mother and father, Rio, she ‘shut down’ herself as she struggled with the emotions associated with her grief.

He said: ‘In that gap between when my mother died and when you died [Kate] came in, that was probably the hardest moment of my dad’s life… I remember the reactions we got from my dad were crazy. My father would lock us up immediately.’

Kate replied: ‘You lost your mother. He’s trying to keep the three of you together. I think we can give him some time on this.

‘When I met my father [Rio]It didn’t really run into direct problems. This is something we have created in recent years.’

Following Tate’s previous appearance on the podcast, they talked about how trolls were trying to start a rivalry between Kate and Tate’s late mother.

However, he said to the young man: ‘There is no competition between your mother and me. Your mother is your mother, your mother will always be your mother.

‘If your mother was here, I wouldn’t be here doing what I’m doing right now.’

Tate appeared on Kate’s podcast earlier this month, where she admitted in a candid conversation that she never thought she’d love her children.

While answering listeners’ dilemmas about their own blended family, Kate asked Tate how she felt about herself in the early days of her romance with Rio.

He said: ‘Shall we have a little talk about our relationship? Because this is all new, no one knows about mine and your relationship.’

Tate replied: ‘I thought you almost took him away at that moment. That’s how I felt.

‘Not so much me and Lorenz. Since Tia was a little young, she would listen to what you were talking about downstairs from behind the door.’

But she added sweetly: ‘I loved you when you were good.’

Looking back fondly, Kate said: ‘I remember the day she changed and you said ‘that’s my step-mum’ and I said ‘oh my god, I’m not her auntie anymore’.’

Kate then read the dilemma about a woman whose partner’s child ‘begged him to take her and her unborn baby away’.

When Kate asked Tate how she felt about her first pregnancy, she admitted: ‘I never thought then that I would love Cree and Shae the way we do now.’

Rio added: ‘I think you might have thought a little bit that you weren’t having a normal pregnancy like other people had.’

And Tate asked: ‘Did we make you feel a certain way?’

The family also addressed authority and whether someone introduced to the children as a partner had the skills to tell them what to do.

Explaining her initial resistance, Tate said: ‘Because I felt the same way you did. [Kate] ‘They were trying to tell me what to do’.

Kate said it was and Tate said: ‘But I felt like you were trying to tell me what to do and I thought, who are you to tell me what to do?’

In the past, influencer Kate has opened up about her heartbreaking struggle as a stepmother to Rio’s children after they lost their mother.

Kate struggled with strong emotions as she bonded with her stepchildren and claimed she felt ‘walking in the steps of someone else’s life’ as her relationship with former footballer Rio developed.

In his book How To Build A Family he wrote: ‘If I could bring Rebecca back I would do so in a heartbeat because of the pain I see in them.

‘A child losing his parents is terrible. You want to hug them and bring their mother back to make them happy, but you can’t.

‘As a stepparent coming into a bereaved home, you can sometimes find yourself in situations where you feel like you’re walking in the steps of someone else’s life.’