Latest news with #AntonFerdinand
Daily Mirror
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Rio Ferdinand 'saved me from depression' says emotional brother Anton
Dancing On Ice star Anton Ferdinand revealed that his football legend brother Rio Ferdinand helped save him from the depths of depression following the death of their mum Following the tragic death of his mother eight years ago, retired footballer Anton Ferdinand has openly discussed the detrimental effect her death had on his mental health. But now, the former West Ham star, 40, has revealed that due to the help of his brother Rio Ferdinand and other family members, he was "lucky" enough to navigate his way through the darkness of depression. At his lowest point following the passing of his mother to cancer in 2017, Anton exclusively told the Mirror that he was spiralling out of control and using alcohol to numb his pain. He explained: "I was drinking a lot. I sit here lucky, I've got a good support network around me. Fantastic wife, fantastic children, fantastic family members who saw that I needed help. And not everyone is lucky like that, to have that support network." When asked if he would go as far as to say that his brother Rio and other family members helped save him from what could have been, he responded with a simple "100%." He continued: " One reason I use the term lucky, I'm lucky because mental health is a crazy thing where you don't realise you're in it until you come out of it. " He added: "So the day to day thought process, you actually think you're ok because it becomes the norm. And the only time you realise you've had a mental health issue is when you're on the way out of it, which is dangerous. " He went on to say: "That's so dangerous because some people don't get to the point where they're on their way out so they don't know that they're in it. So everything is normalised for them. That's how dangerous it actually is." "I was able to realise something was wrong with me on the way out of it. I didn't realise what was wrong with me while I was in it," he continued. Anton has joined forces with the mental health charity Sports In Mind's campaign on tackling harmful language in sports media. And since retiring from playing professional football in 2019, Anton delved into the world of reality TV with gusto and most recently appeared on Dancing On Ice. But it seems as though Anton gained far more from the ITV show than simply taking part and showing a different side to his character. He claimed that it allowed him the opportunity to "rediscover" himself. He told the Mirror: "The competitiveness, the structure everyday for me was massive. I've not had that structure everyday for a long, long whole set up of Dancing On Ice felt like a football club to me. " He added: "In a football club, I spoke to everybody, I wasn't someone who only spoke to my team mates and my manager. I spoke to the cleaners, the cooks, the admin people, I spoke to everybody in the football club." He continued:" I was like that on Dancing On Ice. The Ice allowed me to feel like Anton Ferdinand again, which for me was one of the best outcomes of being on Dancing On Ice." And it seems that he grew close to his fellow DOI contestant Ferne McCann as the pair both trained at the same ice skating rink in Chelmsford. Anton revealed: "I spoke a lot with Ferne. Me and Ferne trained a lot at Chelmsford together and her skating partner Brendon Hatfield. I was really, really close to him."
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Anton Ferdinand reveals Dancing on Ice weight loss as he jokes he is 'enhancing his skater's bum'
Anton Ferdinand has "definitely lost weight" by doing 'Dancing on Ice'. The 39-year-old former footballer is currently competing in the ITV1 competition alongside professional partner Annette Dytrt and lamented that he had started to become out of shape after retiring in 2019, but is slowly getting back on track with things. He told The Sun newspaper's TVBiz column: "I had a skaters bum before, I had it when I played football and this is just enhancing it! 'I've definitely lost weight. When I retired I could see my body fat going up in places where I wouldn't normally have it, you know? 'I like to think that's starting to come down a bit now but I'm nowhere near the type of fitness I had when I was playing football. "However, I need to find what my elite fitness is now, what my thoroughbred feel is now because it's obviously not gonna be the same. 'My body ain't as robust as it was before having not trained properly for six years." The talkSPORT pundit is currently competing against 'Springwatch' presenter Michaela Strachan, Dan Edgar of 'TOWIE' fame, 'Coronation Street' actor Sam Aston, and former 'Traitors' star Mollie Pearce, but is determined to go all the way on the series, especially after feeling as if he "lost his identity" after retiring from the pitch. He said: "But one thing I'll always do is push myself to the end. I've always been like that and I'll continue to be like that. "I think if you speak to most sports people, when they leave their sport and they're retired, they lose a part of themselves, they lose a part of their identity. 'And that definitely happened to me. "
