Kate Ferdinand has admitted she “sobbed” on her first Mother’s Day with husband Rio.
The pair got together a year after Rio’s wife Rebecca tragically passed away. She died after being diagnosed with breast cancer, aged just 34.
Rebecca and Rio had three children together – Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14, and Tia, 11.
But when former TOWIE star Kate, 31, moved in with Rio, things quickly became serious, with her taking on much of the ‘mum’ role.
Pregnant Kate, who shares a son, Cree, two, with Rio said she was left in tears.
Kate Ferdinand describes first Mother’s Day with Rio
Speaking on her Blended podcast, Kate said: “I wasn’t a biological mum.
So I just went in my room and I just sobbed my heart out – seriously.
“I think it was our first Mother’s Day – maybe I’d been living here about six months, something like that.
“And although I wasn’t a biological mum I kind of felt like I’d taken on the mum role.
“For me, going from living at home on my own to taking the kids to school, cooking them dinner, I felt like a mum.”
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Addressing Rio on the episode, she explained: “I really thought I might get a card from you, and I didn’t get a card from you.
“I felt bad to express that in front of you because you guys had lost your mum, and the kids have lost their mum.
“So I just went in my room and I just sobbed my heart out – seriously.
“And then I felt selfish for wanting a card, ‘How dare I want a card?’
“So anyone that’s kind of new in this situation might feel like that because it’s a weird one – ‘I wasn’t a biological parent so how could I expect that?’
“But I felt like a mum.”
For the first few years after Rebecca died, the family would go to the cemetery on Mother’s Day.
Kate and Rio’s blended family
Rio, 44, said he made a mistake by forgetting, adding he didn’t even remember not getting her a card.
He said: “I wasn’t being aware of the role that you’re playing, and how invested you are, to – not to reward you – but to go, ‘Let’s acknowledge Kate for her part she’s playing in some way, shape or form, whether that’s a card or a cake or whatever it is’.
Rio added: “And then the person who’s there putting in all the graft, who’s helping it all go along as well as it can go, you fail to acknowledge.
“And you look at it now and think, ‘What the [bleep] was I thinking?’ Mistakes are made.”
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