It has now been one year since Kate Garraway bid a heart-wrenching farewell to her husband, Derek Draper, who tragically passed away aged just 56 following a harrowing illness. The political lobbyist and psychotherapist experienced health complications after contracting COVID-19 in March 2020.
His health then deteriorated significantly following a cardiac arrest in December 2023, and he passed away on January 3, 2024 after falling into a coma.
Dedicated wife and mother, Kate, 57, looked after Derek devotedly until his last moment, sharing their story with the public in a way that touched numerous families throughout the country.
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As she has now faced the poignant first anniversary of her husband’s death, the Good Morning Britain presenter continues to advocate strongly for those affected by long Covid and for individuals grappling with the devastation of caring for seriously ill loved ones.
Throughout this incredibly challenging period, Kate, a mother of two, has candidly spoken about how difficult this first year without Derek has been. She has dealt with overwhelming debts and endured a “tough” Christmas season, which was heavy with nostalgia.
Crushing debt
Kate has been open about the financial struggles she’s faced due to Derek’s illness, revealing that she had to find £16,000 a month for her late husband’s constant care.
In her candid documentary ‘Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story’, which chronicled the last year of Derek’s life, Kate disclosed: “Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point,” reports the Mirror.
“I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care, and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.”
Further financial woes hit when it was reported last May that Kate faced a £150,000 bill due to the closure of Derek’s psychotherapeutic business, Asta Aspera, which was shut down with £184,096.96 in debt. Additionally, The Sun claimed that Kate had been instructed to pay a £32,000 flat fee plus 40 percent of any assets recovered from the company.
Kate was reportedly faced with a £112,836 bill from a director’s loan taken out by Derek and sought financial expertise from London firm Hacker Young.
A source told the Mirror that Kate engaged the specialists for dealings with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), saying: “Kate has made no secret of her financial issues, which include Derek’s medical care bills and the collapse of his company. She is now getting the help she needs to help with the tax bill.”
TV company losses
Documents revealed last month that Kate’s TV company, Praespero 100 Ltd, went from profit to accruing debts totalling £165,000 within a year. This comes after reports surfaced of three additional firms linked to the presenter and her late husband amassing significant debts of around £2 million.
Recent files from Companies House indicated that as of November 30, 2023, Praespero 100 Ltd had debts of £165,011, a sharp contrast to the previous year’s profit of £36,88. No comment on these developments has been forthcoming from representatives of Kate.
First tough Christmas without Derek
Approaching her first Christmas since Derek’s passing, Kate shared her feelings with fellow presenter Susanna Reid, admitting: “It’s very raw, Susanna, to be honest. It’s very raw.”
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, she continued: “I mean, this time last year, Derek was still alive – very sick. We thought it was the toughest Christmas because, weirdly, in 2020, we had a lot of hope that he was coming out… I think that I am [still] in the early stages of grief… The pain and the feeling is still there.”
Her colleague Ranvir Singh showed support, asking Kate how she was feeling and acknowledging that the team were all thinking of her.
Kate shared: “Yeah, so it’s our first Christmas without him. I’ve been talking to Andi Peters, who lost his mum and warned me that Christmas is the hardest time.”
She added: “I think this one will be particularly hard. But I’m lucky that I’ve got family around me, and it’s distracting. But I think you do feel grief because that’s the point where you have the memories of previous years, and you were lucky enough to still have them over the last four or five years, even though they were very ill.”
Ranvir then enquired: “Was he very ill this time last year? ” A tearful Kate responded: “He was, yes. He was in intensive care this time last year. But we were going in to him in intensive care. Inside my head I did fear this was a grim one, but the children didn’t. They were still very hopeful.”
Reflecting on coping with loss during the holidays, Kate added: “So yeah, it’s a tough one this year and I think anyone who is experiencing grief, it does hit you when you have memories tied to traditions. It comes back. But I’m thinking of everybody else who’s feeling that.”
Call on government
During her call for government action, Kate directly addressed Health Secretary West Streeting over the struggles of “dealing with the funding of care” and mentioned that despite her adequate salary, the costs had incurred “excessive unpayable debt”.
She continued to express concern for those in similar predicaments and urged Mr Streeting to recognise the importance of the issue following his announcement that his review into the care system would span years.
Drawing from her own personal experiences on Good Morning Britain this week, Kate confided in Mr Streeting: “I’m going to be honest. In my mind, I’m thinking about the situation with Derek. It actually happens to be the one-year anniversary of his death today, which is a day only relevant to me, but over the last few weeks, the family and I have been talking about the challenges we faced this time last year.”
“And one of the overriding ones until he went back into intensive care before he passed away was dealing with the funding of care. At the time of his death, there were two appeals that hadn’t been heard for funding. It kept on getting pushed back and pushed back.
“In the meantime, and I’m lucky I’ve got an incredible job which is well-paid, I was having to fund the situation. Now I’ve got excessive unpayable debt because of it, and if I’m in that position, what else are people going to be? People can’t afford four more years of this?.”
Mr Streeting announced an independent investigation that will lay the groundwork for the new ‘National Care Service’ promised in the Labour Party manifesto. However, any significant reforms may not be delivered until 2028, which could well be too late for families like Kate’s, who are already struggling with care costs amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The Health Secretary outlined his plans for the service, stating: “I was going to say, Kate, I think that’s why your story connected with so many people. It’s not just that you’re a familiar face on people’s screens and your viewers feel they’ve got a relationship with you as a presenter, it’s also because your experience with Derek and your family’s experience resonates with so many people across the country who are struggling with the same costs or the same unmet needs or similar experiences.”
He added: “And I think one of the reasons why we’ve always ended back into this sort of the short-termist cycle of failure, is whenever we talk about social care, there are costs involved, and that sort of makes people run for the hills and want to stick their head in the sand in politics, because sometimes those numbers can be scary.”
He continued: “And one of the reasons I genuinely think, even with the majority of the size that we’ve got, it’s a good thing to try and build cross-party consensus is I want to come up with a plan that means whoever’s in government after the next general election or the one after that, whether it’s a Labour government or a Conservative government or a coalition or whoever that, broadly speaking, we keep the same direction of travel on social care in the way that we have with the NHS since 1948.”
