Kate Ferdinand has shared a series of summer bikini photos with husband Rio Ferdinand after hitting back at claims she married him for money.
The 35-year-old former reality star posted the images on Instagram on Friday, telling her social media followers that her "cup is full" following quality family time.
Her gallery included a cosy picture posing alongside her husband Rio, 47, as well as shots modelling bikinis and a photo enjoying a girls' day out with Rio's sister, Sian.
Gold digger claims and public perception
The social media upload came after Kate spoke openly about public scrutiny during a live chat for her podcast, Blended, alongside co-host Cilla Kessie.
During the broadcast, the couple discussed how the public perceives their relationship, with Kate addressing long-standing assumptions about her motives for marrying the former footballer, who has an estimated net worth of £57 million.
"People think I'm a gold digger, I'm with him for money. I'm basically his nanny that he doesn't pay," Kate admitted during the chat.
She insisted that she feels secure enough in her marriage not to react to the accusations. "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's true though," she said.
Kate added: "I'm here because I love you, there are great things and there are hard things."
Step-parenting and domestic difficulties
Kate was 25 when she started dating Rio in 2016, stepping away from her reality television career on The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) to devote herself to being a step-mother. The couple married in 2019.
They co-parent Rio's three teenage children, Lorenz, 19, Tate, 18, and Tia, 15, whose mother Rebecca tragically died from breast cancer in 2015 at age 34. Kate and Rio are also parents to two-year-old daughter Shae and five-year-old son Cree.
During the live broadcast, co-host Cilla Kessie asked Rio if he ever felt guilty for "snatching Kate out of her life and bringing her into this domestic world and she's carrying with her all the criticisms and difficulties."
"I've thought about that a lot," Rio replied. "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."
He added: "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."
Adapting to a blended family structure
Rio admitted that transitioning from grief to building a blended family with Kate was not seamless. "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," he said.
"So I never got into a mad rhythm, I didn't get into a two year rhythm, we morphed. It was change, adapt," Rio explained, noting that the process required significant adjustment on his part.
He stressed that giving Kate space to parent was essential for the family. "The thing I had to open up to, and it can make or break the whole situation, is allowing Kate to parent," Rio said.
"When you'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. 'This is how I parent, this is what we do, now let's see your version'. I can't just dictate. It's been a really open back and forth," he added.
Future television projects
Following her latest social media posts, reports suggest Rio and Kate Ferdinand may be tipped to appear together on a new I'm A Celebrity spin-off set in Canada.
