Kate Garraway: I am ashamed that paying for husband’s care left me in debt

Kate Garraway has said she is “ashamed” of the fact the care bills for husband Derek Draper have left her in debt.

The Good Morning Britain (GMB) star has revealed she was spending £16,000 a month on care for her husband before he died in January at the age of 56 after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.

The presenter said the cost of his basic care exceeded her ITV salary and did not factor in his therapies, the mortgage payments or other household expenses.

She told ITV’s GMB: “I am ashamed of the fact I’m in debt. I have an incredible job that I love that’s very well paid.

“I’m not a carer travelling miles, paying their own transport to go and help somebody for minimum wage.

“I’m somebody that is very well paid and so I just feel a shame that I couldn’t make it work.”

The final year of Draper’s life is documented in a new programme, in which he speaks on camera for the first time, saying: “I want you to hear my story.”

The documentary shows the couple in their daily life, including a scene of him undergoing mobility therapy, and wailing and branding himself “pathetic” as he struggles to stand up to grab a walking frame.

Garraway said: “There’s a piece in the documentary where he’s very distressed.

“People might look at it and think, ‘Why is she not in the room with him?’ and, Jake, the amazing carer that has been with him on and off throughout the journey comes in and says, ‘I think he needs you’ and of course I go, but the reason why I’m not in there is that I’m piling through papers to launch yet another appeal.

“And I look back at that, and I think ‘oh my god, people are going through that without the experience of processing information that we get as training in this job’.”

During her appearance on GMB, Garraway questioned Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on what the Government is doing to support carers.

She asked her: “When you come out of hospital, you are on your own. And you can fight and fight and fight but the system somehow makes you feel like you’re always losing. Why is that?”

In the documentary Garraway also details how Draper’s health struggles and her role as his carer affected their relationship.

She says: “I have accepted that (my future as a carer) but how that translates into the relationship is a work in progress.

“Sometimes you show love with a big bunch of flowers, sometimes it’s bringing a cup of tea at the right moment, and he can’t do any of those things for me.

“So he’s trying to work out how to love me – I know he loves me but how does he show that? And I’m trying to work out if I feel loved by him. I know I am loved, so we have got a whole journey to go on there.”

– Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story airs on Tuesday March 26 at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV.