{"id":34639,"date":"2026-08-09T14:52:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T09:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34639"},"modified":"2026-08-09T14:52:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T09:52:48","slug":"kate-ferdinand-hits-back-at-accusations-shes-a-golddigger-for-marrying-husband-rio-as-she-insists-if-i-wanted-to-pick-a-rich-man-i-would-have-picked-someone-without-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34639","title":{"rendered":"Kate Ferdinand hits back at accusations she&#8217;s a golddigger for marrying husband Rio as she insists &#8216;If I wanted to pick a rich man, I would have picked someone without kids&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/tvshowbiz\/kate-ferdinand\/index.html\" id=\"mol-e3a9d0f0-93ca-11f1-92d4-2b91d10ebb33\" class=\"class\">Kate Ferdinand<\/a> has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting &#8216;I could have picked a lot easier man.&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Former\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/tvshowbiz\/towie\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2c4ed670-7acb-11f1-b5ee-9d9737abb569\">TOWIE<\/a> star Kate, 35, co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son Cree, five.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">She has been open about the challenges of raising a blended family, and her relationship with the teenagers after their mother Rebecca tragically died from breast <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/cancer\/index.html\" id=\"mol-2c45fcd0-7acb-11f1-b5ee-9d9737abb569\">cancer<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 aged just 34.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Kate was 25 when she started dating Rio in 2016, and soon gave up her reality star life to devote herself to being a step mum. The couple married in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">She was joined by Rio on a live <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"class\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cbsYZD5szTU\">Blended<\/a> chat where the couple were asked by co-host Cilla Kessie what they think the public&#8217;s perception of their relationship has been over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;People think I&#8217;m a gold digger, I&#8217;m with him for money. I&#8217;m basically his nanny that he doesn&#8217;t pay,&#8217; Kate admitted.<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\" style=\"style\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"> <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-73ad1295fe96166d\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/09\/09\/110523055-16039529-Kate_Ferdinand_has_laughed_off_claims_she_is_a_gold_digger_for_m-a-4_1786263613283.jpg\" height=\"1111\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Kate Ferdinand has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting 'I could have picked a lot easier man.'\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Kate Ferdinand has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting &#8216;I could have picked a lot easier man.&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">She added though that she feels secure enough in her marriage not to rise to the claims, insisting: &#8216;I always say if I wanted to pick a rich man I could have picked a lot easier one without all the kids. If it was just a money thing, it&#8217;s true though.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;m here because I love you, there are great things and there are hard things.&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rio also came under the spotlight as he was asked if he ever feels guilty for &#8216;snatching Kate out of her life and bringing her into this domestic world and she&#8217;s carrying with her all the criticisms and difficulties&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;ve thought about that a lot,&#8217; Rio said, adding to Kate. &#8216;There have been big issues that have happened, especially on where I have thought your life could be so much more simple without me, and without us.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;As much pain and hard yards we have brought to her life, I think it balances out the goodness we have brought to her life as well. But I do appreciate the stress we have brought to her life as well.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rio admitted that going from losing his late wife Rebecca to creating a blended family with Kate &#8216;wasn&#8217;t a smooth transition. I had to adapt a lot but big things.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Rebecca died, I became a single parent but I had my mum there, my mum became that mother figure but then my mum died quickly after and I then became a single parent but then Kate arrived. So I never got into a mad rhythm, I didn&#8217;t get into a two year rhythm, we morphed. It was change, adapt.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;The thing I had to open up to, and it can make or break the whole situation, is allowing Kate to parent.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;When you&#8217;ve got kids and someone new is coming in, you have to give them the space to parent and trust them but set the boundaries too. &#8220;This is how I parent, this is what we do, now let&#8217;s see your version&#8221;. I can&#8217;t just dictate. It&#8217;s been a really open back and forth.&#8217;<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\" style=\"style\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"> <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-cbc3ad9814142140\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/09\/09\/109880259-16039529-Former_TOWIE_star_Kate_co_parents_Tate_18_Lorenz_19_and_Tia_15_w-a-2_1786263599291.jpg\" height=\"553\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Former TOWIE star Kate co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son Cree, five\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Former TOWIE star Kate co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son Cree, five<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\" style=\"style\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"> <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-2a7098aeab0c0a7b\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/09\/09\/110523059-16039529-image-a-5_1786263625674.jpg\" height=\"317\" width=\"634\" alt=\"She was joined by Rio on a live Blended chat where the couple were asked by co host Cilla Kessie what they think the public's perception of their relationship has been over the past decade\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">She was joined by Rio on a live Blended chat where the couple were asked by co host Cilla Kessie what they think the public&#8217;s perception of their relationship has been over the past decade<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In the latest episode of the Blended podcast Rio helped out with viewer dilemmas and offered insight into having children with a new partner after already being a dad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The ex footballer admitted that when he met Kate &#8216;I&#8217;d made my mind up. When I met you, I was like, three kids. I didn&#8217;t even want a relationship, let alone kids.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;We ended up here, babe,&#8217; Kate pointed out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;But you then adapt to the circumstances,&#8217; he explained. &#8216;And so, okay. We&#8217;re now seeing each other. We are in love. You&#8217;re young. You want kids, you want your own kids as well biologically.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I was like well I don&#8217;t really want kids but I love her so I&#8217;ve just got to go ahead with it and I wouldn&#8217;t change it now you know what I mean.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Something that drives you to making that decision and changing your mind is that look at what she&#8217;s putting herself through for me and the kids and I&#8217;m\u00a0going to go &#8220;I can&#8217;t no?&#8221; I couldn&#8217;t do that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kate Ferdinand has laughed off claims she is a gold digger for marrying her former footballer husband Rio, insisting &#8216;I could have picked a lot easier man.&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Former\u00a0TOWIE star Kate, 35, co-parents Tate, 18, Lorenz, 19, and Tia, 15, with husband Rio, 47, and they are also proud parents to daughter Shae, two, and son&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/08\/09\/09\/110523055-16039529-Kate_Ferdinand_has_laughed_off_claims_she_is_a_gold_digger_for_m-a-4_1786263613283.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}