‘It’s so hypocritical. She wasn’t very nice to those kids in the beginning’: Kate Ferdinand has built her brand around being a ‘blended family’ success story – but insiders say the ‘reality has been quite different’

Former bank worker Kate Wright was refreshingly comfortable with embarrassing herself on TV when she joined ITV’s reality show The Only Way Is Essex in 2015.

Kate, a former car salesman and close friend of TOWIE star Gemma Collins, was then in an on-and-off relationship with handsome electrician Dan Edgar and, as colleagues told me, was happy to be ‘rinsed’ by the show in exchange for fame.

But that all changed when he caught the eye of former England footballer Rio Ferdinand, then a father of three, at a beach club in Dubai.

The two met a few months after Rio’s wife, Rebecca Ellison, died of breast cancer in late 2016. At the time, he was still suffering from his childhood crush, but friends told me he was ‘turned on by her sexiness’ and was seeking stability for his children.

They were dating in January 2017 and Kate quickly changed her public persona from Essex party girl to doting stepmum. Kate and Rio quickly took to Instagram as a platform to insist their blended family was a huge success.

Since then, Kate has made having a blended family her ‘brand’. Rio and Kate later had two children; their five-year-old son Cree and two-year-old daughter Shae.

In 2021, she launched her own money-making podcast, ‘Blended,’ and she often talks about being a stepmom. He has also written books on the subject called How to Build a Family and a children’s book called Family Tree.

‘They claimed to be the happiest, most harmonious family,’ a friend of the clan told me.

Rio’s wife, Rebecca Ellison, died of breast cancer in 2015; Football star left heartbroken over childhood love

We only now know that the image of the perfect family that Kate is so keen to promote wasn’t always accurate.

This week, Tate, the eldest of Rio’s three children with his first wife Rebecca, admitted he initially ‘hated’ his father’s new partner when he was younger.

Speaking to Kate and her co-host Nathalie Holmes-Lewis on the Blended podcast about the beginning of her relationship with her stepmother, Tate 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 a really weird feeling.

‘Part of me really wants to like him. Then the other part of me thinks: “Oh, there is loyalty towards my mother here, what am I doing?”

Addressing Kate, Tate said: ‘When I hated you, I hated you. Then we can do something good and I’ll go right back into love mode. And then I almost had to lie about what I had done before. ‘I was in a confused state.’

Although this outburst came as a surprise to many, as Kate and Rio met in the wake of Rebecca’s death a decade ago, I was reassured that things are not always as they seem.

People close to Kate tell me that her transition into the stepmother role wasn’t easy.

An old friend of Kate’s told me at the time: ‘It’s all so hypocritical. Kate wasn’t very nice to these kids in the beginning. She met Rio when she was 25, while Rio was 37 and had three children under the age of ten, whose mother had tragically died a year earlier.

‘In Essex, she went from fighting with friends to being a stepmother to three young and grieving children. She needed to focus on the positive aspects of being with someone with a large profile and the money he had. He found it really hard but obviously he’s making a living from it all now.

‘Kate has transformed from Essex reality girl to blended family spokesperson. And while she’s open about their struggles, that’s all she wants to share. The reality was quite different.’

While many have suggested that Kate’s life certainly got easier after meeting Rio, Kate’s £10million fortune meant she would no longer have to promote herself on reality shows; However, this situation was not without setbacks.

An old friend of Kate’s said to me at the time: ‘She’s made for life now, isn’t she? He found himself a rich football player. ‘He doesn’t need to show off anymore, thanks to Rio he’s moved up the celebrity world.’

‘This is a huge situation where Instagram is facing reality,’ says my source. ‘Kate exaggerates this but it’s actually hard for her. He drifted to Dubai to live and didn’t like being away from his family.

‘Rio thinks she’s better than everyone else because she married Ferdinand. But surely nothing is as it seems behind closed doors, right? He’s not as happy as he seems in all his social media posts. Actually, this is all really sad.’

Tate, the eldest of Rio’s children, admitted on Kate’s Blended podcast that he initially ‘hated’ his father’s new partner when he was little.

An old friend of Kate said the former TOWIE star ‘had a relationship with Rio when he was 25, while Kate was 37 and had three children under 10’.

Kate has remained by Rio’s side throughout her grief, but that means she sometimes has to live in Rebecca’s shadow. The former TOWIE star supported Rio when he won the TV Bafta in 2018 for his documentary Rio Ferdinand: Becoming a Mum and Dad, which explored fatherhood following Rebecca’s death. Kate appeared alongside him during his emotional speech, but mainly praised his late wife.

Rio isn’t perfect either. Throughout my years of reporting on footballers, I’ve heard plenty of stories about what a party boy he was.

And I remember the day I was informed of Rebecca’s death with great sadness.

As the news broke, red papers published allegations that Rio was cheating on Rebecca, including his affair with interior designer Carly Storey.

After the Sunday Mirror published the story, Rio lost the privacy case against them. During the high court showdown, it was revealed that he also flirted with Pop Idol contestant Sarah Whatmore, Brazilian model Tatiane Rosalino, whom he met on a magazine shoot, and Lauren Alcorn, a Virgin Airways stewardess whom he paid to have an abortion.

He allegedly had a threesome with Catherine Shepherd and Savannah Benson in Ayia Napa in 2004.

‘It’s devastating to think about what Kate will read,’ says an old friend of Rio’s. ‘He was such a dog. Still, Kate wanted to connect with him. You wonder why.’

Quite a few. But not long after Rebecca’s death, Kate, who is 12 years Rio’s junior, moved from her native Essex to Kent before the family moved to Dubai; apparently all this at his insistence.

They took Cree and Shae, the two children they had together, but it was a huge upheaval for Rio’s other children, Tate, 18, and Tia, 15, who also came with them.

‘Kate wasn’t too happy about going to Dubai but followed Rio there,’ says a friend. ‘But he wasn’t happy there. He missed his family. When you’re with a man this rich, you have to ask yourself how much you should pursue him.

‘It’s a very old story, but it’s true.’

Now that Kate has children of her own with Rio, the relationship dynamic has changed. Those close to the former TOWIE star say they fear for the future of their partnership.

While the couple claimed they were in love with each other and got married in a spectacular ceremony in Marmaris, Türkiye, in September 2019, friends note that Rio often worked abroad. In fact, he currently works as a pundit for the BBC in Salford.

A source close to Katie said: ‘There’s definitely been a power shift in the relationship now that Kate has children of her own with Rio. The man is away from his family because of work and she takes care of the children.

‘He barely speaks to anyone since his Essex days, he’s clearly someone who’s forgotten his roots. ‘He has now achieved great success and has completely reinvented himself.’