Kate Garraway has revealed her son told her she’d become a ‘monster’ after she became a single parent following her late husband’s death.
The TV presenter’s political lobbyist husband Derek passed away in January 2024 aged 56 following four years of health struggles as one of the UK’s longest-suffering Covid patients.
Since then, both her children have had important school exams, and Kate admitted she has had to crack the whip with her son Billy’s GCSE’s revision after allowing him to focus less on his education during the traumatic years of Derek’s illness.
Speaking on Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe’s podcast Parenting Hell Kate explained: ‘Especially with my son, because he was the younger one, certainly when Derek was first sick and was in the coma for that year, I just kind of thought “Let’s just be happy”.
‘So I was quite bad in the sense that I was definitely sort of saying “Oh, we can’t get online for that, just don’t worry about that learning, let’s re-watch Nativity! for the 140th time”, which is one of his favourite movies.’
She continued: ‘I didn’t care about it. And then I suddenly thought “Oh my God, we’re now at GCSEs”.
Kate Garraway’s son Billy, 16, branded her a ‘monster’ when she forced him to focus on his GCSEs as she opened up about being a single parent in new podcast
The TV presenter’s political lobbyist husband Derek passed away in January 2024 aged 56 following four years of health struggles as one of the UK’s longest-suffering Covid patients
‘So he found it really hard because I was going “Come on Bill, you’ve got to focus”. He’s looking at me as if to say “Why have you become a monster?” In fact he said that.
‘What happened to “Come on here’s some chocolate, let’s watch a movie – I don’t like this mummy now”.’
Kate added: ‘Nobody’s hoping for A stars and 9s you just want them to have access to choice and to feel good about themselves.
‘We all know actually that things come along in life and it’s never really actually to do with passing an exam, it’s to do with your attitude.
‘I say “I don’t really mind as long as you’re enthusiastic and you get involved. Just get involved, don’t fail and don’t drop out because you just couldn’t be bothered. And then if you keep trying stuff eventually you find something that excites you”.’
As well as Billy’s GCSE’s, last year Kate’s daughter Darcey, 19, sat her A Levels. And Kate explained she wishes her children could take turns going through crises in a ‘relay’ rather than have them at the same time.
Reflecting on Billy’s GCSE period she said: ‘That was pretty traumatic. But he’s sort of got himself into a place to do what he wants to do, which is sort of music and acting. So you sort of feel like you think ‘ok, alright, we’re limping through gradually’.
‘You sort of have to kind of celebrate the wins because you know you’ll turn round next time, you’ll turn round for a second and there’s like “oh, ok, you’ve fallen apart”.
As well as Billy’s GCSE’s, last year Kate’s daughter Darcey, 19, (pictured) sat her A Levels. And Kate explained she wishes her children could take turns going through crises in a ‘relay’
Kate said she ‘curses the world’ for leaving her alone to bring up her two teenage children as she said: ‘You’ve just got to kind of get on with it’ (pictured together in September 2024)
‘I say “If the two of you could just try and do some kind of relay that would be really helpful”.
‘Darcey’s doing fine. So I’m like “Darcey, if you could stay doing fine until we’ve got Billy a little bit more sorted that would be helpful, and then Billy you can be fine and Darcey could fall apart”.
Kate said she ‘curses the world’ for leaving her alone to bring up her two teenage children when they are being ‘stupid’, ‘infuriating’, or going through stressful difficulties at the same time.
She explained: ‘I tell you what I miss most about being a single parent is that even if your partner is driving you absolutely crackers, which happened a lot with Derek and I, probably equally but I feel like he drove me mad a lot, it’s just like you both have that shared love of the child where they do something stupid but you both find it cute.
‘Or they do something infuriating, but there’s an underlying acknowledgement of forgiveness. It’s hard to explain that you only get that from those two (parents).’
She added: ‘When you’re on your own you’re kind of being a bit schizophrenic.
‘I’ve always said “Oh my God, I so admire single parents, I could never be one”, and I think “Curse you, curse you world”. You’ve just got to kind of get on with it.’
