Rio Ferdinand and Kate Wright have announced they’re engaged!
The couple shared the wonderful news with fans via Instagram on Thursday after former footballer Rio, 39, popped the question to ex-TOWIE star Kate, 27, in front of his three kids on holiday in Abu Dhabi.
Rio revealed his children – Lorenz, 12, Tate, ten, and seven-year-old Tia – knew he was planning to get down on one knee but managed to keep it a secret from Kate!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpotjFoB-eb/?hl=en&taken-by=rioferdy5
Both shared pictures from the happy occasion showing the kids first watching the big moment and then congratulating the couple.
Rio wrote on Instagram: “She said yes. How these three kids kept it a secret I’ll never know.”
Kate added: “The perfect end to our holiday … How could the answer not be yes?”
Read more: Kate Wright reveals secret code word with Rio Ferdinand’s daughter
The newly-engaged pair were flooded with congratulatory comments from friends and fans, including Hollyoaks’ Chelsee Healey and former TOWIE star Mike Hassini.
Kate and Rio were introduced by mutual friends at the start of 2017, two years after Rio’s wife Rebecca, the mother of his children, tragically passed away from breast cancer.
They immediately clicked and Kate decided to step away from the limelight, quitting reality TV in order to focus on her new role as a stepmum to three young children.
Kate previously spoke on ITV’s This Morning about how it was important for her and Rio to gradually introduce her into the kids’ lives once they knew their relationship was serious.
She said: “I think a really big part in our relationship and it working for the children is that everything we’ve done we’ve included them in, from the first date, to us moving in, him asking me to be his girlfriend.
“Everything, the kids were part of it, so it feels I wasn’t taking their dad away from them, it was more us becoming a bit of a family unit.”
Kate said she and Rio were always careful to spend time with the children, explaining how they’d go for lunch as a couple at the start of their romance, before coming home and treating the kids to a fun activity.
“They then thought, ‘If Kate is there, we get to do fun stuff afterwards’, to change their mindset in that it is fun, it isn’t me taking their dad away,” she said.
In an interview with Daily Mail’s You Magazine in August, Kate spoke about her strong bond with the children, saying they were now keen for her and Rio to have a child.
She said: “The kids would like a little brother or sister; they say ‘I dreamt that you were pregnant’. But right now we’re just happy with our little unit.”
Read more: Rio Ferdinand thanks Kate Wright for bringing joy to children’s lives
Kate also stressed she will never try to replace the children’s late mother, Rebecca, and spoke about how they honour Rebecca’s memory.
“Their mum is irreplaceable; we celebrate her birthday, we go to the cemetery together,” she said.
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