Rio Ferdinand 'yet to grieve properly' for wife Rebecca

Ferdinand is now a TV pundit and restaurant owner

Ex-footballer Rio Ferdinand says he hasn't yet given himself time to "grieve properly" for his wife Rebecca.

The former player lost his wife and the mother of his three children to breast cancer in 2015 when she was just 34.

He has spoken of his loss in a BBC One documentary, to be shown in the spring, about parents who lose their partners.

"I don't think I've grieved properly. I've not given myself that time to sit down and really flush everything out," the ex-England captain will say.

Ferdinand spent 12 years at Manchester United and won 81 caps for his country.

The couple had been together for several years before he and Rebecca Ellison married in 2009 and had three children together.

She died in May 2015.

'Candid'

Alison Kirkham, the BBC's controller of factual commissioning and events, praised 38-year-old Ferdinand for participating in a "revealing and immensely personal documentary exploring the complexities of grief".

She said the "candid" hour-long film - called Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad - would offer audiences "an intimate exploration of the ways in which men similarly bereaved cope with their loss."

At the time, Ferdinand released a statement saying: "Rebecca, my wonderful wife, passed away peacefully after a short battle with cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

"She was a fantastic loving mother to our three beautiful children. She will be missed as a wife, sister, aunt, daughter and granddaughter. She will live on in our memory, as a guide and inspiration."

Rio retired a few weeks later, having played his last match for his final club, QPR, in March of that year.

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