Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and this is Happy Place, the podcast that shows we're all just

muddling through life as best we can. Today I'm catching up with Kate Ferdinand.

I think I was really nervous at the beginning and obviously Lorenz, Tate and Tia have their

own kind of way. Well they're all the same age, so all the activities suit, we'll do the

same thing and then all of a sudden, this toddler's come in. The whole dynamic has changed

of the house because all of a sudden there's this little human. Naturally, Kree gets more

of my time but they're just so welcoming and it is the most beautiful thing because I

was so worried thinking, are they going to get on? Are they going to see each other's

brothers and sisters? Is there going to be a void because I'm here and they're mum

isn't here? Are they going to feel that? They're just brothers and sisters.

Kate was on the show a couple of years ago with her husband Ryo. I went to that gorgeous

house which was so wonderful. I met Rolly, Kate's tiny dog who actually smiles. I've got

a picture I'll dig it out. He's the cutest dog and very much enjoyed meandering to the

downstairs toilet which leads you through a corridor where there's like a glass floor

with all Ryo's amazing football boots embedded into the floor. I mean, I did take a sneaky

picture. At the time, Kate was just a couple of years into her life as a step parent to

Ryo's three children. Since then, Kate's had her son Kree and is currently pregnant too.

So there have been even more new challenges for her to navigate now that she, like me,

has both step and biological children. She's written a beautiful book How to Build a Family

which I'm incredibly proud to say is published by Happy Place Books. It covers everything

from moving in with a ready-made family and how to make your own changes in that dynamic

to managing comparisons with previous partners and how to cope with insecurities around being

...