Kate Garraway says late husband Derek Draper was 'trapped' in final moments as she opens up about his death

Presenter returned to Good Morning Britain this week
William Mata17 February 2024
The Weekender

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Kate Garraway has said her late husband Derek Draper was “trapped” in his final few hours as she opened up about his death.

The presenter said she was grateful to be by the side of the former lobbyist before he passed away aged 56 on January 3.

Returning to work on Good Morning Britain this week, Garraway has already described feeling “numb” at losing her husband of 19 years while she has also revealed she received a letter from the Princess of Wales

Mr Draper died from cardiac arrest, having been suffering with long-covid after his diagnosis in March 2020 at the height of the pandemic. 

Garraway said on LBC radio on Friday: “I wanted him to know I wasn't giving up because if you are trapped as they believe he was, inside a body that was very damaged and failing, I didn't want him to think that we were departing him.”

Kate Garraway also has a regular gig presenting for Smooth Radio
PA

She was speaking ahead of a national day of reflection on March 3, where the public are encouraged to think about the devastating impact covid had on the nation during the pandemic.

Garraway added: "He lived on and on through situations that they didn't think he could. So, I think there is a little bit of peace, but there is also a sense of unreality about it. I think that it was huge honour for me, actually. You can't thank the people around you enough, who never stopped fighting for his life but also somehow managed to hold people.”

Garraway had two children, Darcey and Billy with Mr Draper, and has said she is only at the first stages of grief as a result of what covid did to her family. 

"It was a huge honour to be there with him through those last hours and to have that,” she said in the LBC interview.

“I think about all the people during covid that didn't have that, and I think about all the circumstances when people don't have that.

"Of course that's life and things happen to people and it doesn't mean that it's any less that you can't be there. You take what you are given, but I felt like it was a lovely thing to get to do that for Derek."

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