Rio: I told kids their dying mum’s going to be a star
FORMER England football captain Rio Ferdinand yesterday revealed how he told his three children their dying mother was “going up into the stars”.
The ex-Manchester United defender has opened his heart about the death of his wife Rebecca Ellison from breast cancer, aged 34, two years ago.
Rio, 38, told how he broke the news to children Lorenz, 10, Tate, eight, and Tia, six, that their mother had only days to live.
He had to tell the children that time was running out because Rebecca’s cancer had spread.
Rio said: “I gazed at my beautiful children, lost for words, searching for a way to begin.
“I said, ‘I’m afraid I’ve got to tell you something very, very sad. Mum’s not going to be able to get out of here. She’s got cancer again and this time she isn’t going to get better’.
Sorry
“They stared at me, wide-eyed, dumbstruck.
“I told them, ‘They’ve been trying to help her, the doctors, but they can’t any more. She’s been strong, and she’s tried to get better, but I’m so sorry.
‘She’s going to be a star – she’s going to go up into the stars as a spirit and she’ll always be there in the sky, looking down on us’.”
He admitted that he turned to drink and contemplated suicide after Rebecca’s death and had felt remorse over his life as a football star while she had looked after the children.
The TV pundit, who last week announced plans to become a boxer, has started a relationship with Kate Wright, a former star of TV’s The Only Way Is Essex.
He has written a book, Thinking Out Loud, about his ordeal and bringing up his children.