Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway has revealed she’ll be heading on her family’s first holiday without her husband Derek Draper.
The ITV presenter, 56, has been grieving the death of her late husband Drapee, who died earlier this year following a lengthy and difficult battle with complications related to Covid aged 56.
An intimate documentary, titled Finding Derek, looked at how his family – Kate, and their two children Darcey, 18, and Billy, 14 – cared for him and looked after him.
Kate won a National Television Award for the documentary.
Now Kate has revealed that she, Darcey, and Billy are planning their first family holiday without him, saying that it will be ‘lovely’ but ‘challenging’.
‘We will get a family holiday. But it’s going to be a bit challenging because it’s a different kind of family set up that we have now.
She told MailOnline: ‘But we will do something lovely.’
Draper died on January 3, 2024 after battling the debilitating symptoms of Long Covid for nearly four years – he was among the first people in the UK to contract the virus as the UK entered lockdown in March 2020.
The virus badly damaged his internal organs, which resulted in him being admitted to hospital – he was placed into an induced coma for two months.
In April 2021, Kate revealed he was still bedridden and mostly immobile. He was still needing round-the-clock care over 18 months after his initial diagnosis.
Draper, a former political lobbyist, then went for experimental care in Mexico in 2022, with Kate revealing he was starting to form words again but still struggling to express himself.
He went into cardiac arrest in December 2023 and died shortly afterwards, with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Elton John, and Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan among those in attendance at his funeral.
Kate and Derek were married for 19 years, having tied the knot in 2005.
Earlier this year, Kate revealed that, as a result of caring for Derek for so long, she is currently in debts of between £500,000 and £800,000.
She told The Times: ‘Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point.
‘I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.’
Kate revealed that Derek’s care cost around £ 16,000 a month, which surpassed her pay from ITV and became even more costly when her mortgage was factored in.
She said at the time: ‘I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.’
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