Kate Garraway has revealed she was forced to go without heating in her home due to the care costs of her late husband.
Former political advisor , Derek Draper sadly passed away in January aged 56, having suffered with serious health complications ever since contracting Covid-19 in 2020. Good Morning Britain star Kate supported him in every step of his battle, which saw her accumulate £800,000 of debt owing to his round-the-clock care.
Speaking on her documentary Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story which was filmed for ITV in October 2023, Kate explained: “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.”
READ MORE:Kate Garraway questions if she ‘felt loved’ by husband Derek Draper in new doc
READ MORE:Kate Garraway reveals moment her marriage to Derek Draper suddenly changed
The production highlights Kate’s struggles both financially and emotionally with the cost of living at her family’s North London home at the time.
(Image: ITV)
Despite her handsome salary, 56-year old mum-of-two Kate was left financially bereft from the ordeal and has since vowed to fight for change – in a bid to ensure others don’t have to go through the same problems she did.
“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,” she continued. “And that’s what now, I want to be Derek’s legacy, to fight on for that change.”
(Image: ITV)
After waking from an induced coma in 2020, Derek was left wheelchair-bound and unable to walk, which prompted him to undergo intense physiotherapy to try and find his feet again. Kate’s documentary cruelly showed, however, that just nine days before his death from a cardiac arrest he had in fact been walking.
It followed incredibly sad scenes earlier in the documentary that saw Derek brand himself “pathetic” as he struggled to stand with a walking frame. Kate was seen encouraging him via a FaceTime call from her Smooth Radio studio, meanwhile.
Her producer explained: “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.”
Reflecting on the end of his life, Kate later admitted: “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.”
Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story is available to stream on ITVX
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
