LONG before she was living the glamorous life of a former footballer’s wife, Kate Ferdinand was a proper Essex girl, sharing the highs and lows of her life on Towie.
Then known as Kate Wright, she joined the ITVBe show in 2015 as its bubbly, glamorous “Barbie”, alongside her then-boyfriend of six years, Dan Edgar, and quickly became one of its central figures.
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Viewers watched her shop for bikinis on Brentwood High Street and get a blow-dry at Chloe Sims’ salon.
She and Dan were also regulars on the celebrity party circuit – so much so that, as a showbiz journalist just starting out, I became friendly with the couple.
Kate knew I worked for a well-known celebrity magazine, but she was always lovely and chatty.
She made time for me, never failed to say hello and even followed me, along with several of my colleagues, on Instagram and Twitter – as it was known back then.
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I was on the same pub quiz team as her and Dan, as well as Dan’s mum at a Towie-themed quiz to celebrate the show’s birthday.
Over wine and nibbles, we were killing ourselves laughing all night – especially over the fact I, embarrassingly, had way more Towie knowledge than the two of them.
When I interviewed her years later for The Sun about Christmas with Rio and the kids, she was actually really lovely, and immediately said: “Oh my god, Hayley, long time no see!” so she clearly hasn’t forgotten about us little people completely, but is definitely in another far-removed life.
However, that all changed soon after she got together with former England footballer Rio Ferdinand – worth £60 million – in 2018.
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She had a huge rebrand.
Gone were the trashy outfits and bleached-blonde hair, and in came the more demure, polished looks and warmer-toned locks.
She withdrew from the celebrity circuit, left Towie and even unfollowed me and my friends on social media.
At the same time, she took on an enormous new role behind closed doors too – becoming a stepmother to Rio’s three children, Lorenz, Tate and Tia, following the death of their mother, Rebecca Ellison, from breast cancer in 2015.
From the outside, it felt as though Kate had deliberately shut the door on her old Essex life – including some of the people who had supported her during her rise to fame – as she reinvented herself as a devoted wife and stepmother.
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But her recent appearance in Ibiza suggests she may now be ready to let a little of the old Kate back out.
Wearing a crop top and daring see-through trousers, she was pictured letting her hair down in a nightclub – worlds away from the carefully curated, family-focused image she has cultivated in recent years.
And with Kate and Rio reportedly negotiating a mega-money deal to appear together on I’m A Celebrity: Wild Frontier, it seems she could be preparing for a return to the reality-TV spotlight.
Kate and Rio met through mutual friends while holidaying in Dubai in January 2017 and quickly became inseparable.
Two months later, Rio was seen leaving Kate’s Brentwood flat after spending the night there, before the couple enjoyed a long weekend in Dubai.
Kate, then 25, was still filming Towie but refused to discuss her new relationship on camera.
By April, she had stepped away from the show, initially saying she wanted to focus on new “business ventures”.
That September, however, she confirmed she was leaving for good to prioritise Rio and his children.
She said: “I’m taking a step back from the public eye.
“I want to keep my life private, as I lived my previous relationship on Towie.
“My priority right now is Rio and the family.”
Reflecting on the decision in 2018, she added: “People probably thought I was crazy, but it was the best decision I could have made.
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“It didn’t feel right for the children to see their dad’s girlfriend out and about, creating all this drama on TV.”
Kate swapped her Essex pad for Rio’s mansion and threw herself into family life, from preparing the children for school to supervising homework and cooking dinner.
She admitted: “I wasn’t a good cook at first. I’d always eaten out or at my mum’s.
“It took a while, but now the kids say I do better lamb chops than Rio.
“It’s certainly full-on. My friends who haven’t got kids say, ‘I can’t believe how much you have to do,’ but it’s my life now and I’m really happy.”
Stilettos were swapped for slippers as Kate admitted glamour had slipped down her priority list.
She laughed: “I have wet hair on the school run. Sometimes I’m dropping off the kids in my slippers and I think, ‘If people could see me now.’
“It used to bug me if I couldn’t work out, but now I don’t beat myself up.
“You can’t take life for granted – you have to appreciate it.”
Rio proposed during a family holiday in Abu Dhabi in November 2018, before the couple married in Marmaris, Turkey, the following September.
They have since welcomed two children together, son Cree, five, and daughter Shae, three.
Despite their seemingly perfect family life, Kate has spoken candidly about the challenges she has faced.
Addressing cruel accusations about her motives for marrying Rio, she said on her Blended podcast: “People think I’m a gold digger, I’m with him for money. I’m basically his nanny that he doesn’t pay.
“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.”
Kate also opened up about joining a bereaved family in her book, How To Build A Family.
She wrote: “If I could bring Rebecca back, I would in an instant because of the pain I’ve seen in them.
“A child losing their parent is horrendous. You want to scoop them up and bring their mum back to make them happy, but you can’t.
“As a step-parent coming into a bereaved home, you can sometimes find yourself in situations where you feel like you’re walking in the steps of someone else’s life.”
Recently, her stepson Tate, 18, admitted that during the couple’s early days, he feared Kate was “taking Dad away”.
Kate has also revealed that Rio’s children were initially reluctant about the couple having children of their own.
But she eventually won them over, despite fears that she would become an “evil stepmum”.
Now her Ibiza outing and reported I’m A Celebrity deal suggest Kate could be hoping to win over viewers too – proving that, despite her lavish life in Dubai, she remains the down-to-earth Essex girl audiences first met on Towie.
Kate and Rio have reportedly been lined up to tackle daredevil challenges and Bushtucker Trials together in the Canadian spin-off.
It would mark former Manchester United and England defender Rio’s first major venture into reality television, alongside the woman whose own career began in the genre.
A source said: “Bosses are overjoyed to have landed the Ferdinands. It’s a real coup for the show.
“They have brilliant chemistry and are great fun. It will be the first time viewers have really seen Rio away from football chat, too.
“ITV are still in talks with some other brilliant names and this show promises to be absolutely spectacular – and a real social media talker.”
Former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Boyzone’s Keith Duffy have reportedly each signed £100,000 deals for the programme, which airs next year – but Rio and Kate’s fee is expected to dwarf theirs.
Given Kate’s reality TV roots, it would be no surprise if she were the one encouraging Rio to take the plunge.
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After years spent distancing herself from her Towie past, the original Essex Barbie may finally be ready to reclaim the reality TV spotlight.
Let’s just hope she welcomes her journalist friends back in too.