Kate Garraway has confessed she initially refused to carry a coffin during Celebrity Traitors as it triggered memories of the death of her husband Derek Draper.
The host, 58, was widowed in January 2024 when Derek passed away after a four-year battle against long Covid.
And now the star has admitted she did a ‘double-take’ and ‘gasped’ when she saw the coffins in the second mission.
While traitor Alan Carr was often heard teasing Kate for her ‘useless’ game play, in scenes not aired Kate explained she leant on him and Celia Imrie for support.
‘You don’t know what’s coming next and so you find yourself walking on by the coffins. And I did a double-take, I gasped, and I was walking with Alan and Celia was in front of me,’ she told The Sun.
Kate explained she talked things through with the production team who made sure to check in with her as did the psychologist on site.
Traitors star Kate Garraway has confessed she refused to take part in the show’s coffin stunt as it triggered memories of her of husband Derek Draper’s death
The host, 58, was widowed in January 2024 when her husband Derek passed away after a four-year battle against long Covid (pictured together in December 2019)
She added: ‘But you’re suddenly in the moment and I said, “I’m not sure. I think it’s a bit strange and a bit weird”.’
Opening up about her relationship with Celia, 73, Kate recalled how the pair had intense conversations about her being a parent to her two children now their dad isn’t around.
She admitted: ‘She gave me such brilliant, perceptive advice. I really have been trying to live by that. I’ve cried more since the Traitors about pure missing Derek than before.’
Kate was finally banished from the castle in the penultimate episode of the Celebrity Traitors on Thursday.
And speaking on Good Morning Britain on Friday she admitted she ‘didn’t take it personally’ as she has ‘lived genuine life or death’ – which had put everything else in perspective.
Kate was a Faithful in the popular murder mystery programme and admitted that she was ‘flabbergasted’ by the other players’ suspicions of her.
She said: ‘Every roundtable, I was always under attack, always under suspicion, I’m amazed I lasted.’
Kate said: ‘I didn’t take it personally, at the end of the day, it’s an incredible game that you’re sucked into… I didn’t take it personally, I’ve lived genuine life or death, so at the end of the day, this is a game, and you know you’re not really going to be murdered.’
She explained: ‘You don’t know what’s coming next and so you find yourself walking on by the coffins. And I did a double-take, I gasped’
She added: ‘But you’re suddenly in the moment and I said, “I’m not sure. I think it’s a bit strange and a bit weird”‘ (Lucy Beaumont pictured in her coffin)
Derek fought a brave four-year battle against Covid before tragically passing away in January last year at the age of 56
Speaking prior to the series, Kate explained she needed to take some time to have fun following her family’s tragedy.
She said: ‘I’ve been through so many challenges over the last five years, I’ve faced a lot of actual life and death moments, and I’ve done a lot of crying over all that’s happened to our family. It’s all been so serious.
‘So, this feels like a chance to have fun and make a little mischief playing in what I genuinely believe is the best game on TV.’
Throughout Kate’s time on the show, fans were quick to comment on how accidentally suspicious she came across on screen.
They wrote on Twitter/X: ‘Kate Garraway is coming across SO suspicious and being so over the top. Even I’m starting to think she’s secretly a Traitor and I know she isn’t. #CelebrityTraitors’;
‘kate garraway going down in history as one of the most useless faithfuls #CelebrityTraitors [sic].’;
‘Poor Kate. They’re like “We think you’re a Traitor and we also think you’re a terrible Faithful… and we also think you’re stupid.” Hahaha. She can’t win.’
