January 5th 2024.
This week has been a devastating one for Kate Garraway and her family as her husband of nearly 20 years, Derek Draper, has died aged 56. The Good Morning Britain presenter, also 56, revealed the news on Friday, January 5.
Derek had been battling coronavirus since March 2020, making him Britain’s longest-suffering Covid victim. He was put on a ventilator and fell into a coma, spending 13 months in hospital.
Sharing the news of his death, Kate said he was ‘surrounded by his family in his final days and I was by his side holding his hand throughout the last long hours and when he passed’. Derek was a Labour Party aide to former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson. He and Kate had been married since 2005 and had two children; Darcey, 17, and William, 14.
The couple’s relationship began in 2004 when they were introduced by the then political editor of GMTV, Gloria De Piero. They tied the knot a year later and welcomed their first child, Darcey Mary Draper, in 2006. William Garraway Draper followed in 2009.
Their lives were changed in March 2020 when Derek first contracted coronavirus. Though Kate had a milder case, his illness was set to worsen. He was admitted to hospital and put into an induced coma to help his body fight the virus.
For the next three years, Derek faced several serious health scares. A few weeks before Christmas in 2023, Kate cancelled all work commitments after her husband suffered a ‘massive heart attack’.
On January 5, Kate announced that her husband had died. She thanked the medical teams who had fought to save him and made his final moments as comfortable and dignified as possible. Our thoughts are with Kate and her family at this difficult time.
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