Kate Garraway looked in good spirits as she continued her morning of work on Wednesday, after making an emotional return to her ITV show Good Morning Britain.
The TV star was still dressed in the bold yellow print dress she wore for her first appearance back in the GMB studio as she headed out into London for more interviews and meetings.
Waving at photoraphers, Kate wore a mask as she was accompanied by her team into the LBC Radio studios for an interview with James O’Brien.
Back to work: Kate Garraway looked in good spirits as she continued her morning of work on Wednesday, after making an emotional return to her ITV show Good Morning Britain
Kate added a black leather jacket over her long floral print dress which was teamed with white leather boots.
She carried a large bag while an aide wheeled a suitcase for her. Wearing a blue surgical mask, Kate greeted photographers with a friendly wave before heading inside LBC.
Kate’s heartbreaking interview on GMB saw the star tell how her children have ‘effectively lost their dad’.
She revealed her husband Derek remains in a ‘desperate situation’ and has almost died six times when his organs failed during his 100-day battle with coronavirus.
Wave: The TV star was still dressed in the bold yellow print dress she wore for her first appearance back in the GMB studio as she headed out around London for more interviews
Brave: Kate won praise far and wide for her brave interviews
The mother-of-two admitted she was ‘absolutely gripped by fear’ at times when the former political lobbyist was in a coma, but said he has amazed doctors with his resilience and they have ‘fantastic hope’.
Kate explained how Derek has now started to open his eyes as she left the family’s ‘little bubble of sadness’ to return to the Good Morning Britain studio for the first time since her husband contracted the deadly disease.
She told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: ‘It’s a strange word coma, he was induced which was what they were doing then because it was a way of resting the lungs, of course they’re no longer keeping him in the coma but he’s not fully awake.
Out and about: She wore the bright dress for her busy day
More interviews: Waving at photoraphers, Kate wore a mask as she was accompanied by her team into the LBC Radio studios for an interview with James O’Brien
Chic: Kate added a black leather jacket over her long floral print dress which she wore on GMB
Team: Wearing a blue surgical mask, Kate had an animated conversation with her team
A kind wave: Kate made various appearances throughout the day
‘There’s two types of coma, there’s the one we think of as vegetative coma, and the one Derek is in which is a minimum station of consciousness, wonderfully his eyes are open but we have no real knowledge of what he can see or hear.’
Kate said that despite Derek’s ill health she remains hopeful that he will recover, as he has already defied expectations with his incredible progress.
She added: ‘It is a very desperate situation, it’s very very difficult, of course there’sf fantastic hope he’s still alive, the doctors do keep saying it’s a miracle he’s still alive. I was speaking to a doctor yesterdayday who said he’s stick as anyone I’ve ever seen in 35 years of medicine, and some of those people who were as sick of him aren’t here. Six times they said he’s not going to make it, and obviously you couldn’t visit.
Sweet: Myleene Klass revealed she was enjoying a catch up with Kate at LBC
Emotional morning: Kate revealed on Wednesday that she’ll be back in her role on GMB from next week
Living life: The TV star had been advised by Derek’s doctors to return to work and regain some normality for herself and the couple’s children
Emotion: A visibly emotional Kate spoke to colleagues Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid in the GMB studio on Wednesday
Reunited: Piers Morgan shared a snap with his colleague
‘So he’s been very very sick, but it’s a new disease, there’s no data, so what they can say is it’s great he’s here. There’s flickers of hope, his lings are starting to recover, his kidneys are doing better, his liver, but they don’t know how much better he can get.’
Asked whether there had been any explanation for why Derek had been so badly affected by the virus, Kate admitted doctors are still unsure.
She said: ‘There isn’t, he was a little bit overweight, I’m a bit of a feeder! Zero underlying conditions, he’s young comparatively, he’s 52, so there is no explanation.
All white? She was boosting her height in white ankle boots
Trying to move forward: Kate has recently been told to ‘get on with her life’ by doctors and get back some normality for herself and her two children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11,
‘I think what’s happened is at every stage they’ve been learning. One of the wonderful things is that they’ve changed medical practices, they’ve changed pathways because of Derek. I keep telling him on the Facetime he would be very pleased about that.’
Now that Derek has been declared COVID-free, Kate admitted she fears for the long-term damage the virus may have done, and whether that will affect Derek in his recovery.
‘When he went into hospital, I got some texts saying ”oh I’m definitely not gonna die, tell the children I’m doing great,” but there was a feeling of terror because he had COVID and suddenly it escalated.
Long road: Kate’s husband has been in hospital since March, and while Kate sparked hope over the weekend by revealing he has awoken from a coma, the star has been told his recovery could take years
Out and about: She was smiling from behind her mask following the difficult day
‘And then suddenly it became everything, and each stage has been sort of a new terror and just when I thought we were moving forward suddenly it can now affect your body everywhere.
‘There’s a huge post-viral syndrome, damage done in ways we didn’t know. I was sitting with Dr Hilary and he said it’s the lungs, it’s respiratory you’re fearing from COVID.’
Kate also reiterated that doctors had urged her to ‘get on with life’ while Derek continues to recover, insisting she had to be present for their two children Darcey, 14, and Billy, 11.
‘I have had moments, you know when you get abs gripped with fear and everything was going so well, but it’s happened to the world it’s happened to everybody, in this time you’ve seen people, I know people, you know people who have been watching this show who have been diagnosed with terrible illnesses,’ Kate added.
‘The situation for me now is that doctors are saying to me you’ve got to get on, for Darcy and Billy, effectively right now, they’ve lost their dad, he’s not a presence in their lives.’
Kate’s husband has been in hospital since March, and while Kate sparked hope over the weekend by revealing he has awoken from a coma, the star has been told his recovery could take years.
Speaking about being back in the GMB studio, Kate said: ‘It feels lovely to be back, it feels very strange. The positive is I know, and I can hear Derek, I mucked up this week with the children.
‘Billy is in year 6, they’d organised a hoodie and I missed it and everyone got one and he didn’t get it, and he was really upset and I was really upset, fortunately one of the mums had ordered two, so he has now got one.
‘So I just thought, ”Come on Garraway” – Derek would be incensed with me – ”this is your priority, you’ve got to get on, you’ve got to get back into things, you’ve got to cope…”
‘The problem with this pandemic is it’s lives, it’s livelihoods, it’s fear and anxiety. I’ve got to get on and do the things I’m good at.’
Kate then confirmed that she could be returning to GMB on Monday, to present the programme full-time during the summer holidays, as doctors have urged her to ‘get on with life’ during Derek’s recovery.
She added: ‘I’m coming back – I’m not sure I’ve quite for the fight to be Piers Morgan, I’m going to be with Ben Shephard!’
‘I’ve been trying to keep everything going and I’m not especially different, everyone is having to get on with sadness grief and loss, so if I come back we’re all in the same boat.
‘Derek would not just be saying come back, he’d be saying, why haven’t you done it before? As he got into the ambulance he said, ”Go inside and make them feel safe, because they’re going to be panicking about this.”
‘That would be his priority. My job is to make him feel safe and make them feel that they have a future and a world and whatever happens with Derek – we hope and believe he can come back to us – but whatever happens they have to feel they have a world. To see me getting on, they’re going to go back to school in September.’
Return: Kate explained how Derek has now started to open his eyes as she left the family’s ‘little bubble of sadness’ to return to the Good Morning Britain studio
Following the news of her return, Ben took to Twitter to reveal he’d been watching Kate’s interview, writing: ‘Don’t know about you but there’s something very right about seeing @kategarraway on my TV!
‘After all the darkness there is some light, cant wait to be with her in the studio on @gmb on Monday.’
He later added: ‘Really great to see @kategarraway chatting with @susannareid100 @piersmorgan and @DrHilaryJones You can tell it was special Piers even let Kate interrupt @GMB.’
Hope: Kate said that despite Derek’s ill health she remains hopeful that he will recover, as he has already defied expectations with his incredible progress
Piers also took to Instagram to share a backstage snap with Kate, writing: ‘So lovely to have Kate back in the studio today & to see that fabulous smile again.
Clearly keeping optimistic about Derek’s recovery, Kate added; ‘I keep saying on FaceTime [to Derek], ”We are going to go to the Maldives!” They [the doctors] say, ”Maybe don’t book a ticket. Positive thinking, but don’t hand over the cash just yet…’ probably can’t fly anyway. [But they say] ‘Try and look where you’ve come from and try and look to the future.’
Kate said: ‘He’s absolutely fighting… he has an absolute will and if it’s about will to get back to see Darcey and Billy and me… I’ve been visualising sitting here with him. There’d be footage of him coming out of hospital.’
Kate also admitted that having the support of her fans – and some of the UK’s biggest stars – has been a great comfort during Derek’s illness.
She explained: ‘Robert Rinder, he just texted me and said, ”I live really near to you, what can I do?” Darcey was making a photo wall and we didn’t have any Blu Tack.. and he was like, ”Ok…”. We now have a system, I’ll say to him [that we need] butter and milk and he’ll send back a rainbow and it’s on its way.
Photo: Piers shared a photo with Kate as he marked her return to the show
‘David Beckham sent some video clips for the children, people have been incredibly lovely. Elton John contacted me. He got in touch, he said, ‘Hi Kate, It’s Elton’. I was like, ‘Elton…’ I think we do have a mutual friend. He was like, ‘What can I do to help?’ He said, ‘I’m on board’.
‘He’s incredible. I put the phone down, and I’m like, ‘That was Elton John…’ I said, ‘I think he’s going to help!’
‘Amanda Holden, she texted me on Sunday, I felt so low, I read a text and I couldn’t even text back, I’m sorry Amanda, she text just saying, ‘I’m thinking of you, you’re doing amazing’, just reading that is incredible.’
As she spoke about the moments leading up to his hospitalisation in March, GMB host Piers read out a loving text from Derek, 52, in which he expressed his wish for his beloved wife to win I’m A Celebrity.
Missed you: GMB host Ben Shephard paid tribute to Kate on Twitter as he celebrated her return
Piers said: ‘I text Derek saying ‘Kate deserves to win. She should win but either way it’s been fantastic because you’re coming across as the woman we know. This genuine, warm, funny person.
‘He said ‘ thanks Piers, she’s an amazing woman. I so so want her to be the number one for once. She deserves that so much.’
A visibly emotional Kate looked incredibly moved as she heard Derek’s touching sentiments.
Derek Draper: How meeting Kate rescued the hard-living former lobbyist from his battles with depression
Derek has previously credited Kate for saving him from depression which started during his career as a political adviser and led to a nervous breakdown and a stint in The Priory in the late 1990s.
After moving to Los Angeles for three years and retraining as a therapist, his friend GMTV’s political correspondent, Gloria De Piero, offered to set him up with her friend and colleague Kate.
Derek said: ‘I haven’t been depressed for years, since just before I met Kate, who has changed me for the better anyway.
‘I eventually realised I had been masking the depression for years with overwork, drinking or womanising… the drink, drugs and promiscuity, were all toys and inside, unbeknownst to me, the little child part of me was in the driving seat.’
Soulmates: Derek has previously credited Kate for saving him from depression which started during his career as a political adviser and led to a nervous breakdown and a stint in The Priory in the late 1990s (pictured 2006)
Kate and Derek have been married for 14 years, with the former lobbyist cheering his wife on for the duration of her stint on I’m A Celebrity last year, he flew out to Australia with their two children to meet her.
The couple, who wed in September 2005, have previously discussed their union, with Derek admitting that he feared she was ‘a high-maintenance TV bimbo’.
Following her stint on I’m A Celebrity, the couple were planning to renew their vows in the coming months after Kate revealed Derek had proposed for a second time.
Speaking to Mail on Sunday’s You magazine, Kate explained that the proposal idea had come about after she had removed her engagement ring while competing in the jungle.
However, the big moment – which happened off-camera – didn’t quite go to plan as Derek became too overwhelmed with emotion.
She said: ‘You’re told you can’t take any jewellery into the jungle. I didn’t want to take my wedding ring off, as I never have since we got married. But I did take my engagement ring off.
‘When Derek came to meet me after I left the jungle, he was planning to propose to me again [with the ring, in front of the TV cameras], but he got overwhelmed and burst into tears.’
Discussing the heartwarming moment further, she continued: ‘The kids leapt out and surprised me and Darcey said, ‘Oh Dad – you didn’t do it!’ So he got down on one knee and proposed… and I said yes, obviously.’
Derek is best-known for his career as a former lobbyist, who suffered a fall from grace when he was embroiled in the 1998 Lobbygate scandal.
Lancashire-born Derek was a former advisor to Tony Blair’s government and known for his party lifestyle before he met Kate.
During his time as a political adviser he was embroiled in two political scandals – 1998’s Lobbygate and in 2009 a scandal surrounding LabourList, the website he edited.
In 1998 he was caught in a sting by an undercover Observer reporter, bragging about his access to government ministers.
The Lobbygate scandal led to his Daily Express column being axed, the loss of his lobbying job and his firing from his role as editor of New Labour Magazine Progress.
He previously told The Scotsman: ‘Everyone assumes I got depressed because of the scandal.
‘Actually, I had been depressed for two years, from around 1996. I thought I had a physical virus. I’d always been quite arrogant and cocky, but I think I put all my unhappiness into my obsession with the Labour Party.
‘The really spectacular breakdown came two years into my depression with the lobbying thing. That was the killer.’
Depression he had been battling for two years turned into a nervous breakdown, with Derek spending a month in the Priory and undergoing therapy.
He went on to write two books – Blair’s 100 Days and Life Support – before moving to LA for three years and retraining as a psychotherapist.