Kate Garraway and her family are set to spend Christmas with Derek Draper at their London home. The Good Morning Britain presenter has endured another tumultuous year since her husband was diagnosed with Covid in March 2020
Kate Garraway has got her Christmas wish to spend the festive day with husband Derek Draper at home following his near-fatal battle with Covid.
Former political lobbyist Derek won’t spend the day in a hospital bed like her did last year, but while the Good Morning Britain presenter is relieved he’s home for the holidays, she has admitted it will be a far cry from the Christmases they shared before he fell ill.
“This year, we have got him home – and fingers crossed we can keep him home,” wished Kate, who shares two children daughter Darcey and son Billy with the former Labour advisor.
“Of course, he’s not going to be putting on his Santa costume going out with Darcey for a father-and-daughter Christmas shop or the same with Billy.
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“None of those things are on the horizon at the moment so it’s adjusting to a new normal but also grateful he’s here at all which we didn’t have at all last year and feared would never happen.”
The 54-year-old was forced to undergo a last minute change of plans after her hope of taking Derek home to Chorley so they could spend time with his family looks increasingly unlikely because of his vulnerable state.
“At the moment, moving him is a big problem: it’s exhausting for him,” she told Woman’s Own. “If not, maybe the Drapers could come to us for a big gathering, Covid permitting.
“And certainly I’ll be seeing the Garraways but my oven is broken so I’m not sure anyone wants to come to me.”
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While Derek was allowed to return home from hospital this year, Kate has admitted that her husband’s health battle is far from over.
Speaking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Kate said Derek “remembers lots of little details”, but that “Everything has to be done for him, so we have a very different life.”
When asked by Phillip about “how much of Derek” she thinks she will “get back”, she replied: “It’s very hard to know really, we’re having to have a new relationship with him.
“What is there, he is still him, he remembers lots of little details, he reacts to things the kids do in the way he would have before. He’s smiling and laughing at things, and he definitely adores and loves us all.”
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Derek was hospitalised with Covid in March 2020 and subsequently placed under a medically-induced coma.
He woke up several months later and was discharged from hospital to go home in April this year – over 12 months after he was first admitted.
He now requires 24-hour care at home, which his wife provides along with a team of healthcare professionals.
Despite the prospect of becoming a carer, Kate recalled the day Derek came back to their family home as one of “absolute unbridled euphoria” for her.
It took months before Derek was able to tell her he “loves her” again.
In a candid interview with former co-star Piers Morgan on his Life Stories ITV series, Kate revealed how Derek managed three words on the phone before she filmed the programme.
Since contracting Covid, Derek has suffered from several issues including brain inflammation and damage to the lungs, kidneys, heart and liver.
“The doctors believe that there will be a trajectory but that it will be very slow,” Kate told The Telegraph.
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WireImage)
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“Derek will still sleep for 20 hours a day, for example.”
In March this year, Kate gave fans an eye-opening insight into her struggle when documentary Finding Derek aired on ITV.
In the one-off film she was seen crying as Derek spoke for the first time after coming out of a coma.
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