Yahoo News Everything you need to know about Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story
The star's husband Derek Draper died in January at the age of 56
Watch: Kate Garraway set to host documentary about final year of her husband's life
Kate Garraway will front a new ITV programme documenting the last year of her late husband Derek Draper’s life: Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story.
The Good Morning Britain star’s husband died in January after his battle with COVID. She previously made two programmes about his health struggles — Finding Derek and Caring For Derek — and will now share his final chapter which will air on ITV on 26 March.
So what do we know about the programme and what has Garraway said about it? Here is everything you need to know.
When is Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story on TV?
Kate Garraway: Derek's Story will air at 9pm on Tuesday, 26 March on ITV1.
The hour-long documentary starts in May 2023 and looks at the final year of Draper’s life, including both sweet family moments and an insight into his health battle.
But it also looks back and reflects on his life before he contracted COVID in 2020, including his career as a political adviser, his romance with TV star Garraway — who he has two children with — and how Draper’s illness changed their relationship while they maintained their close bond.
The film also highlights the challenges faced by those living with serious illness and disability and those who care for them and will feature contributions from Draper’s carer Jake.
Draper had made it clear he wanted to make the film, explaining when asked why: “I want to be heard."
Kate Garraway reveals 'huge debts' from care costs
The Good Morning Britain presenter spoke many times about her battle to secure the right sort of care for her husband before his death, but in the documentary she details the spiralling costs of his care that came to more than her TV star wage each month.
Speaking before his death, she is shown saying: "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.
"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."
Kate Garraway has said the £16,000 monthly cost of her husband Derek Draper's care caused her to rack up huge debts.
The final year of Derek's life is documented in a new programme on @ITV tonight, in which Draper speaks on camera for the first time, saying: 'I want to be heard' pic.twitter.com/HISE2fWeaj— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 26, 2024
Garraway also expressed her frustration at the care system, something that she has previously spoken to government ministers about: "Time and time again the system tell 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?"
Viewers will see her share the huge bills that she was faced with each month: "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?
"We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers, but the system in which they work is 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?"
Documentary was Derek Draper’s idea
Garraway has said that she hadn’t planned to make a third documentary but that the idea came from her husband.
This will be the first time in the family's series of documentaries that Draper has been heard speaking for himself, as in a poignant moment he says: "I want you to hear my story... I want to be heard."
Garraway explained: “Obviously when we started making this documentary early last year, we had no idea the events that would unfold that ultimately took Derek from us. And in January 2024, after he had passed, I wondered if it was right that it should ever come to air.
"But I didn’t want to let those who have given us so much support over the last four years down, and the carers paid and unpaid who in their thousands of letters to me, feel Derek’s story has given them a voice. Also, I remember so vividly that the idea of making this third documentary at all came from Derek himself.”
She went on: “At the beginning of January 2023, he’d been released from a four month spell in hospital for sepsis and we were very positive about his recovery. Derek was determined to keep on getting better and improving. One day, we were sitting together while I was caring for him and he suddenly, from nowhere, asked, ‘Are we making another documentary?’ I said, ‘Well I hadn’t really planned to. Were you thinking that you would like to?’ And he said firmly, 'Yes'."
The presenter said she told Draper it should be his story, in his voice, explaining: "Derek got very emotional at the idea, because his words and speech were so limited and there were so many things he wanted to say about the struggle we were all having as a family and he wanted to speak up about it."
When she asked Draper what his main message was, he replied: "Never give up fighting for what you believe in and for the people you love."
“We had to find a way of allowing Derek’s voice to be heard and while having to finish it without him has been so hard, I am delighted that the film is a tribute to Derek and his incredible spirit,” she added.
Kate Garraway says film is a ‘rallying cry’
The film will also raise awareness of those needing care and the people who provide it.
“There are five million unpaid carers in England and Wales and almost half of working age women in the UK do 45 hours of unpaid care a week,” said Garraway. “And of course millions more men and women who help out to support other members of the family."
She said while people may not like to think about needing care "it is going to come to all of us".
"This film is not about attributing blame to anyone, I think in a way it’s a rallying cry to all of us about what sort of society we want and how we don’t have to accept, just because you become seriously ill or disabled, your life is over," she said.
"You should still be able to have a full life with family and friends to the best of your situation. And we must find a way in 2024 to make this happen.”
What happened to Derek Draper?
Draper first fell ill with the coronavirus in March 2020 and spent more than a year in hospital. He returned home to Garraway and their two children Darcey, 18, and Billy, 14, over a year later in April 2021 but needed round-the-clock care.
He had several health struggles, and had to return to hospital in 2022 after falling ill with sepsis.
In January, Garraway posted a message on Instagram announcing that her “darling husband” had died. “As some of you may know he has been critically ill following a cardiac arrest in early December which, because of the damage inflicted by Covid in March 2020, led to further complications,” she said.
“Derek was surrounded by his family in his final days and I was by his side holding his hand throughout the last long hours and when he passed… Rest gently and peacefully now Derek, my love, I was so lucky to have you in my life.”
Kate Garraway: Derek's Story airs Tuesday 26 March at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV.
