Kate Garraway reveals her husband is ‘devastated by Covid’

‘He is a long way from the Derek Draper you knew, but he is home and alive’

Kate Garraway has said her husband Derek Draper is still “devastated by Covid”, a month after he was discharged from a year-long stay in hospital.

The Good Morning Britain presenter provided the update on her husband’s condition on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme on Sunday morning.

She said that Draper, 53, still “can’t really move” and can only communicate minimally with her and their family.

Draper, a former political adviser and lobbyist, was admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms in March 2020 and was placed in a coma.

The virus left Draper with kidney failure, damage to his liver and pancreas, and heart failure, as well as holes in his lungs following bacterial pneumonia and several infections.

He finally returned to the couple’s home in north London in April, where he receives 24-hour care.

Garraway, 54, told Marr: “He is devastated by Covid. He can’t really move, his communication is very minimal.

“There are moments when they’re up, so in this moments you feel that you know he’s in there. He has a lot of memory but the accessing of it is very limited.”

She added: “So how is he? He is a long way from the Derek Draper you knew, Andrew, but he is home and alive.”

Marr told her to give Draper “all our love and all our very best wishes”, to which she replied: “Absolutely.”

Earlier this month, Garraway told Lorraine Kelly she shed “happy tears” when Draper wished her a happy birthday.

She said: “He’s home, we can hug him - that’s a miracle in itself - and we’re looking for little bits of him to come more out of the consciousness and come back to us.

“Last night I said to him when I was tucking him in and doing various medical bits, I said to him, ‘Oh, it’s my birthday tomorrow’.

“He looked a bit worried and I saw, ‘Oh don’t worry, I’m not expecting anything.My birthday present is you being home and I’m going to pop in and see you before I go early to Lorraine.

“So I came in this morning and said I’m all ready and my mum and dad are there and the nurses of course.

“I said, ‘I’m ready and I’m off to Lorraine now, is there anything you want to say to me?’ and he said happy birthday.

“It makes me feel a bit emotional actually but it is happy tears.”