Kate Garraway paid a heartfelt tribute to late husband Derek Draper as she returned to her Smooth FM radio show for the first time since his death on Monday.
The GMB host, 56, also played Elton John’s Your Song in his honour, after the singer performed a ‘heartwarming’ rendition of the tune at the funeral.
Derek passed away aged 56 on January 3 from a cardiac arrest, following years of multiple health complications after contracting Covid.
Before playing the song Kate thanked her listeners for their support saying: ‘I just feel really honoured that you’ve shared your thoughts with me and I’m going to do my best to keep the music flowing’.
‘Now you may know that Elton John sang at my husband Derek’s funeral and it was a very special moment born out of him just being a lovely man and I just wanted to play him for you this morning.’
Kate Garraway, 56, paid a heartfelt tribute to late husband Derek Draper as she returned to her Smooth FM radio show for the first time since his death on Monday
The former lobbyist passed away aged 56 on January 3 from a cardiac arrest, following years of multiple health complications after contracting Covid (Kate and Derek pictured in 2019)
Sir Elton had previously invited Draper and Garraway to be guests of honour at his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert at London’s O2 last year.
Garraway told her Smooth Radio listeners in April 2023 that Sir Elton had been ‘so supportive’ of her family since her husband fell ill.
Kate was later spotted leaving the studio as she cut a stylish display in a cream jumper and matching stylish coat.
As she stepped out of the building, Kate waved her arms in the air and sweetly smiled in the street.
On her return to Smooth FM, Kate said: ‘Hello everyone, I am so glad to be back at Smooth. It’s just been brilliant to hear the great music again and to see everybody.
‘And thank you for all your really lovely messages, It’s so kind of you for you to think of me and also share all your thoughts.
‘I know some of you have been sending me letters and messages about people that you’ve lost and how important it is to share those feelings. So I feel really honoured that you’ve shared them with me.’
Earlier this month, Kate returned to Good Morning Britain for the first time since Derek’s death and received an outpouring of support from fans.
The mother-of-two bravely opened the show with co-host Ben Shepard and told viewers that ‘life has to start again’ and ‘nothing has changed.’
Kate also played Elton John’s Your Song in Derek’s honour, after the singer performed a ‘heartwarming’ rendition of the tune at the funeral (Elton pictured at the funeral last month)
Kate thanked her listeners for their support saying: ‘I just feel really honoured that you’ve shared your thoughts with me and I’m going to do my best to keep the music flowing’
She later took to social media to thank her listeners and said it was ‘lovely to be back
Kate previously told of how she held his hand ‘throughout the last long hours and when he passed’ after suffering a heart attack before Christmas.
Speaking on LBC News last week, she thanked the doctors and nurses who ‘fought for his life’ and explained how she wanted Derek to know ‘they weren’t giving up.’
Recalling his final moments, Kate said: ‘I wanted him to know I wasn’t giving up because if you are trapped as they believe he was, inside a body that was very damaged and failing, I didn’t want him to think that we were departing him.’
She continued: ‘He lived on and on through situations that they didn’t think he could. So, I think there is a little bit of peace, but there is also a sense of unreality about it.
‘I think that it was huge honour for me, actually. You can’t thank the people around enough, who never stopped fighting for his life but also somehow managed to hold people.
Kate was later spotted leaving the studio as she cut a stylish display in a cream jumper and matching stylish coat
As she stepped out of the building, Kate waved her arms in the air and sweetly smiled in the street
Presenter Kate previously told of how she held his hand ‘throughout the last long hours and when he passed’ after suffering a heart attack before Christmas (pictured with their daughter Darcey and son Billy)
‘It was a huge honour to be there with him through those last hours and to have that. I think about all the people during covid that didn’t have that, and I think about all the circumstances when people don’t have that.
Of course that’s life and things happen to people and it doesn’t mean that it’s any less that you can’t be there. You take what you are given, but I felt like it was a lovely thing to get to do that for Derek.’
It comes after Good Morning Britain viewers have claimed ITV bosses made ‘a rookie mistake’ signing Ben Shephard up to This Morning as he works so well with Kate.
Ben, 49, has been a pillar of support to Kate after she returned to the show just days after her husband Derek’s funeral.
As This Morning announced Ben will now be the permanent host alongside Cat Deeley after the departures of both Holly WIlloughby and Phillip Schofield, some viewers questioned why bosses have decided to break a good TV partnership up.
Kate recently shared she feels ‘honoured’ to have been by her late husband Derek Draper’s side during his ‘final hours’
Speaking on LBC News last week, she thanked the doctors and nurses who ‘fought for his life’ and explained how she wanted Derek to know ‘they weren’t giving up’
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one wrote: ‘I’m not sure why they would give the job to Ben when he works really well with Kate and Susanna on gmb.’
Kate talked about the support Ben gave her throughout Derek’s health battle and said he had been brilliant in the weeks that had passed since her husband’s death as many didn’t know what the right thing to say to her family was.
She told OK! when Derek first fell ill in 2020: ‘He’s been phenomenal. For 20 years, Ben has had to do so much for me, but this year has been another level.’
