Rio Ferdinand gets into "full-blast rows" with his wife Kate Ferdinand when he tries to "solve" her problems.
Rio Ferdinand gets into 'full-blast rows' with his wife Kate Ferdinand when he tries to 'solve' her problems
The former England footballer - who shares 23-month-old son Cree with the 31-year-old reality TV star - admits Kate would often rather just vent her issues at him, but he regularly tries to find a solution instead of just listening.
He said: "My missus will tell me a problem that she’s got going on, and I talk about it from my point of view.
"Most men are like this, we try to help them solve the problem. And she’s going ‘I don’t want you to try and solve it’.
"And I end up having arguments with her. We only argue about stuff like this. We get into a full-blast row because you’re trying to solve it.
“She says, ‘I don’t want you to solve my problem for me. I just want to be able to vent, and you listen, and just help me that way’.
"As a man you’re sitting there going ‘Well why are you telling me then if it can’t be solved? Just solve it’.
"Men feel ‘don’t discuss it if you’re not trying to make a solution’.
"What’s the point in discussing it if there’s no solution-based foundations of why you’re making that conversation’, which is probably the wrong way to look at it."
Rio admits meeting Kate - step-mum to his older three kids, Lorenz, 16, Tate, 14, and Tia, 11, who the ex-Manchester United defender shared with his late wife Rebecca Ellison, who died in 2015 from breast cancer aged 34 - has helped him to become a "good communicator".
He added to 'The Football Ramble' podcast: "I think that’s an important factor in feeling good, when you communicate how you feel to someone else or people around you that you care about.
"It’s since I met my missus. I was never really a good communicator before that.
"Then I met Kate. She’s really good and has got really open lines of communication, and she’s pushed me into that way of thinking."
Kate previously admitted she felt "alone and isolated" on Mother's Day last year, her first as a mum.
She said: "Mother's Day for most people is usually a day that we celebrate the women that shaped us, but unfortunately that is just not the case for everyone. For me personally, Mother's Day is a day that I struggle with.
"I'm fortunate to have three amazing step-children and my biological son Cree, but sadly my step-children lost their mum at a young age and also my husband has lost his mum.
"I really, really struggled with Mother's Day even before I was a biological parent, somehow I thought it would be easier when I had Cree but actually last year was probably the toughest Mother's Day to date.
"It's a strange feeling the world is celebrating this day and there is a real big loss in my house but also it was my first Mother's Day - a day in another life that I would really look forward to, but here I am surrounded by my family.
"How can I have the audacity to celebrate myself when all my family have had such a deep loss. I felt really alone and quite isolated, I didn't know anyone in a similar situation or going through the same sort of thing as me."
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