Kate Ferdinand has been left devastated after the death of her pet chihuahua, Ronnie. The tiny pooch has been with Kate since her TOWIE days, with the former reality star renaming him Ronnie Ferdinand when she married ex footballer Rio.
The ‘heartbroken’ mum and stepmum shared a montage of moments she’s shared with her pet dog, as well as photos of her family with the adorable pooch. She captioned her post: “Heartbroken. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love my baby Rons. So so sad.”
Kate got Ronnie in 2015, with her then boyfriend Dan Edgar, when they were on The Only Way is Essex together. He even made several cameos with the couple. During their rocky relationship, Dan bought a teddy for his dog with his face on it, so that “if it all goes t***s up he’s going to remember me”.
3View 3 ImagesKate originally shared Ronnie with ex and former co-star Dan Edgar(Image: Instagram)
3View 3 ImagesRonnie and Rio since bonded, with Ronnie taking his surname when he and Kate married(Image: Instagram)
But after she married Rio in a star-studded wedding in Turkey, she announced she had changed her pup’s name. As she celebrated his fourth birthday, she revealed his last name was now Ferdinand, so he would fit in with the family.
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Following the family’s move to Dubai last year, with her children and husband Rio, she did confirm that she was concerned for little Ronnie’s health. The 34-year-old, who upped sticks and relocated to the United Arab Emirates city where she met her now-husband in 2016, revealed Ronnie had heart failure.
Although the move was their “new chapter”, with the couple hoping for “fresh starts and new beginnings”, she was worried for her pup’s health. She shared a photo of Ronnie, revealing: “I don’t think I’ve told you all but Ronnie has been in heart failure for a while now, so moving was a big worry for us as I wasn’t sure if he would be able to deal with the stress.
“He’s been settling really well but walks are limited because of the heat so this morning we went to an indoor play park and he absolutely loved it.”
Confirming they had finally made the big move, former TOWIE star Kate said: “A new chapter, a fresh start – because if we don’t try, we’ll never know.
“Ahhh! We’ve talked about this for so long, and now it’s finally real… we’re here, we are making a new home in the place we met!” The family previously lived in Bromley, where Rio worked as a pundit for TNT Sports.
They made the exclusive gated community of Al Barari home, alongside son Cree, four, and daughter Shae, two. The couple also have Rio’s three children Lorenz, 19, Tate, 17, and Tia, 14, whose mum was Rio’s first wife Rebecca Ellison, who died from breast cancer in 2015.
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