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Kate Ferdinand has opened up about how upset she was when her family failed to get her a card on the first Mother's Day she spent married to husband Rio.
Mums can come into our lives in all sorts of different ways, and Mother's Day is a time for celebrating everyone in that oh-so-important maternal role.
Rio welcomed his three children, Lorenz, Tate, and Tia, with his late wife Rebecca Ellison, and Kate later joined the family as the kids' stepmother following Ellison's passing in 2015.
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Kate and Rio married in September 2019 and she moved into the family home, but a few months later when Mother's Day rolled around, she was upset that her new role wasn't being acknowledged.
Speaking to Rio on her podcast Blended, Kate recalled how she'd 'sobbed' on that day, saying: "I wasn't a biological mum. 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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Kate told her husband she 'really thought' she might get a card from him to recognise her efforts, but she didn't.
"I felt bad to express that in front of you because you guys had lost your mum, and the kids have lost their mum," Kate said. Instead of voicing her sadness out loud at the time, Kate continued: "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."
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Kate has since become a biological mum of her own as she and Rio welcomed son Cree in December 2020, and she more recently announced their family would be growing even more as they're pregnant with another little one.
Last year, Kate revealed that her three step-children call her 'Mummy Kate', and assured that they are all 'one family'.
“I’m just so grateful that I’ve got a lovely big family I wouldn’t have unless I was in this situation," she said at the time. "The biggest high is love. I’m so lucky.”
Emily Brown