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This footballer's speech about losing his wife is utterly heartbreaking

"My children need to see me talk."

Sam Haysom

on March 29, 2017

This footballer's speech about losing his wife is utterly heartbreaking

Rio Ferdinand's documentary about grief, 'Being Mum and Dad', generated a huge response on social media. Credit: S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock

Footballer Rio Ferdinand lost his wife Rebecca to breast cancer in 2015. She was 34 years old.

Now, two years later, Ferdinand has explored his own grieving process in the BBC documentary Being Mum and Dad.

A clip of the documentary, which was shared on the BBC One Facebook page on Monday, has been viewed over 21 million times.

Being Mum and Dad aired on Tuesday night in the UK. The one-hour documentary saw Ferdinand meeting a group of widowed fathers, exploring the stereotypes that surround male grief, and describing how he coped with looking after his three children after his wife had passed away.

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#BeingMumAndDad began trending on Twitter while the programme aired. Judging by the responses, the subject matter touched a real nerve.

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Here's a clip of Ferdinand talking about his wife on ITV's This Morning:

"What I've learned along the journey is talking is so important," he says in the video above. "And again, talking wasn't really part of my makeup, emotionally.

"But my children need to see me talk, need to feel emotion -- and I think any advice for anyone else, what I've learned through this process, is that talking definitely does... it doesn't make the pain go away, but it helps a lot."

Topics BBC Documentaries Mental Health

Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.