Kate Garraway has admitted to feeling conflicted about having returned to work on Good Morning Britain while her husband Derek Draper remains in a “minimally conscious state”.
Back in April, Kate took a break from her presenting duties when her husband of 15 years, with whom she has two children, was taken to intensive care after contracting Covid-19.
Since then, she has revealed that Derek is now “Covid-free”, although he is still in intensive care, where he is suffering from the damage the illness has caused to his health.
Having now returned to work at the helm of GMB, Kate spoke to co-host Adil Ray during Monday’s live broadcast that while she’s happy to “keep going so Derek has a life to go come back to”, it isn’t always something she finds easy.
“He’s very much still with us,” she explained. “There seems to be different challenges every week.
“I feel conscious of not [talking about it on air]. I know everybody’s been so lovely, and is really concerned for him, and it’s difficult, isn’t it? Because there’s so many people out there with people who are sick, that you don’t want to talk about it on Good Morning Britain all the time because then it’s, like, not cheering up everybody that’s trying to cope with Covid.
“But on the other hand, last week when we were having fun and games, you feel almost bad, because you think ‘oh, I’m laughing and he’s still there’, you know? In a kind of minimally conscious state. And it’s a difficult balance.”
Kate continued: “It was a worrying week last week. He’s still got lots of challenges, challenges involving food, challenges with everything, his lungs, with everything. And we just want him to wake up. But the nurses are putting this show on in the morning, for him, in the hope that it might trigger something. But it’s a waiting game, really.”
She added: “At least I’m lucky that I’ve got the chance to wait, because he’s still with us. And lots of people haven’t got that.”
Towards the end of last month, Kate shared a hopeful update about Derek’s condition, revealing that nurses putting on Good Morning Britain in his room on a morning appeared to have made him more “focused and engaged”.
GMB airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.