Rio Ferdinand, 44, opened up about how his wife Kate, 31, has changed him following their wedding in 2019.
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During an appearance on the Football Ramble podcast, he candidly discussed their different communication styles, which saw them end up in "full-blast rows" after he tried to solve her problems rather than listen and support her. However, he credited his wife for helping him transform for the better and learning to share his feelings. "It's since I met my missus. I was never really a good communicator before that," he admitted.
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"Then I met Kate. She's really good and has got really open lines of communication, and she's pushed me into that way of thinking."
The couple - who share baby Cree - first met while holidaying in Dubai in 2016, and Rio proposed on the top of the St. Regis Abu Dhabi hotel two years later.
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The couple got married in Turkey
The former TOWIE star and the footballer tied the knot in Turkey on 27 September 2019 in front of their closest friends and family, including Rio's three children Lorenz, Tate and Tia from his marriage to Rebecca Ellison.
Rebecca tragically passed away in 2015 at the age of 34 from breast cancer. In the same interview, Rio revealed he struggled to open up about her illness with his fellow athletes at the time.
Rio proposed to Kate in front of his three children, whom he welcomed with his late wife Rebecca Ellison
"My previous wife was passing away and the fella I went to training with every day in the same car, Bobby Zamora, didn't know for a long time. My teammates, that I shared a dressing room with, didn't know.
"That's football, that's a place where I go to work and no one needs to hear that," he said, explaining he didn't want to burden anyone with his problems. After now learning to share his feelings for his own mental health, he added: "With situations like that, with hindsight, you think people would actually embrace that more.
"They'd want to help you, they'd want to open their arms and give you a cuddle and bring you in and have a coffee together and just discuss how you're feeling and help you along the way."
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