Kate Garraway has admitted she’s “very sad” not to be a carer anymore after her husband’s death.
The Good Morning Britain star’s husband Derek Draper died in January at the age of 56 after a long health battle following Covid. He had spent more than a year in hospital after falling ill with the coronavirus in March 2020 and needed round the clock care when he returned home.
TV star Kate, 57, has previously been outspoken about the tough work of carers, and has shared that she was left with debts over her husband’s care. She has now also said she’s sad she no longer gets to tend to Derek, saying it’s “an honour” to look after somebody.
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She opened up in a YouTube video as she discussed speaking up for carers. “I am very sad that I am no longer a carer,” the star said. “But maybe the one thing I can do.
“It was so sad to see Derek, somebody who had fought really hard for a society that he believed was better, to then sort of become the victim of the fact that society hadn’t emerged.”
Kate, who is mum to daughter Darcey, 18, and son Billy, 15, with her late husband, went on: “I feel for him, for the children, but most of all for other people in my situation. I do have to speak up.”
“Because it is not sexy, caring,” added the star, who had been married to former political advisor Derek since 2005. “There are a million movies about George Clooney-like doctors and life in A&E. And we all have a sense of that, but the work of caring goes along quietly and individually, often in isolation, often in a very lonely way.
“There isn’t a movie about carers, there should be. We need to just speak up and talk about it really and all realise it is for the good of all of us to have it at the forefront of our mind.”
Kate had documented Derek’s post-Covid health struggles on social media, in books and in moving TV programmes. Then in January she told her fans on Instagram that he had passed away weeks after he suffered a cardiac arrest.
“Rest gently and peacefully now Derek, my love, I was so lucky to have you in my life,” the star wrote.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
