Kate Garraway has revealed that the financial strains of her husband Derek Draper’s care bills meant she couldn’t afford to have the heating on last October.
In an astonishing confession, the Good Morning Britain presenter said that she was unable to warm up the family home in North London by the end of the psychologist’s fatal four year battle with Covid.
Speaking on her documentary Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story which was filmed last October, Kate said: ‘It’s the brutal reality that Derek’s salary is over and his expenses are up.
‘We haven’t got the heating on anywhere but in his room. Everything is more expensive. I don’t know what to do.’
The programme documents the emotional and financial struggles that she faced before he died in January aged 56.
Kate Garraway, 56, has revealed she couldn’t afford to use the heating due to the tight financial constraints of her late husband Derek Draper’s care bills in her latest documentary
In an astonishing confession, the presenter said that she was unable to warm up the family home in North London by the end of the psychologist’s fatal four year battle with Covid
By the time he passed away, she had racked up £800,000 of debt as Derek needed round-the-clock care which cost a minimum of £576,000 over four years.
Despite her fame, she was left bereft and during the show vowed to campaign for change so that others don’t have to suffer as she and her family did.
An emotional Kate said: ‘Having to fight the system that should be there to catch you when you fall but feels like, when you’re going through it, is there to catch you out.
‘And that’s what now, I want to be Derek’s legacy, to fight on for that change.’
Since emerging from a Covid induced coma in 2020, Derek was left wheelchair-bound and reliant on Kate and his carer, Jake, while he underwent stringent physiotherapy classes to try to regain strength in his body.
But the latest documentary revealed Derek was in fact walking for the first time since contracting Covid just nine days before suffering what proved to be a fatal cardiac arrest.
Prior to this, harrowing scenes showed Derek branding himself ‘pathetic’ and wailing in despair when he tried and failed to lift himself onto a walking frame.
A desperate Kate encouraged her husband of 19 years throughout and on one occasion she had to do so over FaceTime while working on air for her Smooth Radio show.
Kate admitted: ‘We haven’t got the heating on anywhere but in his room. Everything is more expensive. I don’t know what to do’
Derek had been plagued with health woes after contracting the virus in March 2020, which saw him put in a coma, battle sepsis and left with difficulties communicating (pictured 2019)
By the time Derek passed away, she had racked up £800,000 of debt as Derek needed round-the-clock care which cost a minimum of £576,000 over four years
Her producer said: ‘There are definitely moments where she could do with slamming on the breaks. I think she wants to for her sake but she can’t everyone else’s sake.’
Derek was only able to say one or two words at a time after the coma damaged his vocal cords but during one particularly distressing moment, he was heard in a rough bout of depression shouting ‘You’re so mean to me’ to a bewildered Kate.
Reflecting on his final months, she said: ‘After the cardiac arrest, he was still breathing but could only hear so I said to him, “You know me I’m going to fight this all the way but if you can’t fight anymore and what you need now is peace don’t think about us. We’re going to be fine.”
‘An awful lot of what he had done was wanting to be there as a dad and a husband.
‘We had a different kind of love that we had before but it was love and even though it was chaotic and crazy and an absolute slog – in the midst of all that was family.’
After his death in January, Kate said: ‘A lot of people say, as a way of comforting me, “It must be a relief in a way that he’s out of pain and for you, your day isn’t consumed by caring for him.”
‘But there isn’t a relief. The one thing Derek has taught me is never to give up fighting for what is right.
‘It isn’t about Derek or me, it’s about having a society where caring isn’t a luxury, we are all going to need it.’
Further detail was given surrounding Kate’s near stress-induced heart attack in November 2022 which led her colleagues to say, ‘Kate you’re not ok’.
The mother-of-two had been on her way to present Smooth Radio when she had pains in her chest and threw up on herself in the car, according to her producer.
She had woken up at 2am with her arm immobile and severe chest pains and vomited on her bedroom floor.
Kate still allowed herself to be driven to the Good Morning Britain studio but was talked down by her doctor from going on air and was rushed to hospital before collapsing in A&E.
