Rio Ferdinand opens up about drinking problem after death of late wife
Rio Ferdinand has spoken honestly about his use of alcohol as a means to deal with his grief following the death of his late wife, Rebecca.
Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand, has opened up about his struggles with alcohol before meeting is new wife Kate Ferdinand.
Ferdinand’s late wife Rebecca passed way in May 2015 following a long battle with breast cancer, leaving the former defender to raise their three kids – Lorenz, Take and Tia – alone. It was then that he turned to alcohol as a means to deal with his grief.
"I was drinking most nights once the kids had gone to bed. I was in a bad place,” Ferdinand told You magazine ahead of the release of his upcoming BBC documentary, Rio And Kate: Becoming A Step Family, on Monday, February 10.
The former England international explains in the documentary how hard it was for him to find out his kids knew about his drinking problem after he had thought he had been hiding it from them. But, eventually, he got himself together again after meeting his new wife Rebecca, much to the delight of his worried children.
"I thought I kept it hidden from them, and hearing that was hard for me. I'd shut down but meeting Kate changed that and surely that can only be a good thing."
Ferdinand feared he would never meet anyone
Ferdinand also admitted that he feared he would never find love again following the death of Rebecca.
He said: "I thought I’m never going to be happy again. I’ll never meet anyone, I was just really content with just being me and the kids and that’s all I thought it was going to be. And then something just happened.
“When you speak to the kids and the response is much more fun in the house, like – what dad couldn’t want that? She’s uplifting, she’s added value to this house given where it was. It was at a low ebb.”
The former United centre back started dating Kate in 2016, with the two tying the knot in Turkey last year.