Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan fight back tears as they support Kate Garraway’s husband

Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan fought back tears as they pledged their support for Kate Garraway’s critically-ill husband amid his battle with COVID-19.

Appearing on Monday’s Good Morning Britain, Piers, 55, and Susanna, 49, looked visibly emotional as they sent their best to Kate and Derek, and admitted they were ‘all hoping for a miracle.’ 

The Good Morning Britain presenter’s husband Derek Draper, 52, has been in a comatose state in intensive care for the past 10 weeks, after contracting coronavirus.     

Susanna said: ‘Before we begin, I think we both just want to send our love to our colleague and friend Kate Garraway.

‘We both watched her interview on Good Morning Britain on Friday. Millions of you watched as well as she told you and us all about the situation about Derek.

‘Absolutely heartbreaking for the family and then she did an interview over the weekend, more details came out.  

‘So huge, huge love to Kate, she’s going through hell, the family’s going through hell. There is hope still, of course.

‘And she said they were hoping for “that miracle” – and we’re all hoping with her. So huge love to Kate.’    

Former lobbyist Derek is now covid-free but is suffering from serious complications.   

Kate has also revealed that their son Billy, 10, sleeps by his father’s empty bed every night.

Billy is usually walked to school by Derek and misses him so much that he has made a fort on the former lobbyist’s side of the bed.  

Billy and Derek had been building a Lego Death Star from Star Wars and Billy has left it unfinished so the pair can continue when he is out of hospital.   

Derek, a psychologist, was hospitalised at the end of March after becoming breathless. 

Due to hospital hygiene rules surrounding coronavirus, his family haven’t been able to visit him. 

The family FaceTime him everyday in the hopes that he will still be able to hear what they’re saying. 

Although the doting father now doesn’t have Covid-19, the illness seriously damaged his major organs.   

Kate and Derek are also parents to daughter Darcey, 14, who claims she is ‘all Draper. There’s no Garraway in me’. 

Kate said: ‘There are times when I can’t bear to look around this house. It’s full of things he’s chosen, he’s trapped at the moment, in a line between living and the uncertainty of recovery, and we’re trapped with that uncertainty as well.’ 

Derek was initially taken into hospital without any other coronavirus symptoms, just breathlessness.  

However, he then rapidly deteriorated and felt like he was suffocating all the time so doctors put him into a coma.   

The couple were introduced to each other by their mutual friend Gloria de Piero, a former GMTV presenter and were married in 2005. 

Just before he was put into an induced coma Derek, told Kate on the phone: ‘You have saved my life. I don’t just mean now, I mean everything. 

‘Being married to you, and the children.’ 

Doctors stopped giving Derek the drugs that put him in the coma three weeks ago but he hasn’t yet regained consciousness, although he does occasionally open his eyes.      

Kate revealed that she fears her husband Derek could remain in a coma ‘forever’, as she spoke about his devastating battle with coronavirus in an interview with The Sun.     

Kate said she received a ‘terrible phone call’ two weeks ago from a senior doctor in the intensive care unit. 

The presenter explained: ‘My first question, the one I always ask when the hospital call, was, ”Is Derek still alive?” and he said he was, but then asked me what my greatest fear was.

‘I said, ‘Derek dying’ and he replied, ‘Well, now I think I have to give you a second worst case scenario, which is that he never changes from this, that he is locked in this for ever’.  

He said, ‘I’m not telling you this to scare you. It’s because we don’t know if he can recover. We’ll only know over the coming weeks and months’, I threw up, there and then.’ 

Kate said she never imagined she would be told her husband may be trapped in a comatose permanently.

The Good Morning Britain host described it as the ‘second level of loss’, saying even if he doesn’t die, if he doesn’t wake up she will have lost him anyway. 

The mother-of-two went on to explain how the virus has wreaked havoc on Derek’s body. 

She told how the illness ‘attacked everything’ before heartbreakingly admitting; ‘we don’t know if he can recover’.  

 While he is able to breathe through a tracheotomy and the hope is everyday he will rely on the breathing support less,  an MRI scan revealed he has holes in his heart, is on kidney dialysis, has a damaged liver and pancreas and is now diabetic, which he wasn’t before.  

Kate said doctors had been trying to pull Derek out of his comatose state for the past three weeks, but he hasn’t managed to regain consciousness. 

She went on to compare watching his battle to ‘like spinning plates’, adding that should Derek recover, they are looking at ‘months of rehabilitation’.

The television star admitted at times she feels paralysed with fear, but vows to stay strong for their two children. 

Further discussing Derek’s progress, the star recalled shortly before her birthday on May 4th, Derek opened his eyes for the ‘first time’, with the presenter hopeful it was the beginning of his recovery.