Kate Garraway chokes back tears as she returns to GMB just three days after husband Derek's funeral to reveal heartbreaking detail of his final hours - and how daughter Darcey told him: 'We'll be OK, Dad' before he slipped away

Kate Garraway has revealed the emotional final words her daughter Darcey told her father Derek Draper before his death, as she returned to ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Discussing his funeral service and final days, Garraway said how 17-year-old Darcey told him: ‘Dad, if you can’t do this we’ll be OK. You release yourself if you need to go.’

In the heartbreaking interview, she said Darcey whispered to her father: ‘Don’t worry about us, don’t worry about mum. We’ll be fine because you live on through us.’

Garraway said she had similar conversations with him and a ‘chance to hold his hand, smell his skin’ and tell him ‘we’re here’ – adding that ‘some people don’t get that’.

The presenter also revealed her daughter had been ‘extraordinarily brave’ and put herself forward to be a pall bearer, following a horrific four years for the family.

The 56-year-old, who will return to hosting the programme from Thursday alongside Ben Shephard, spoke from her home via videolink just three days after his funeral.

And Garraway thanked her colleague Susanna Reid for putting together a book of condolence from viewers – praising the ‘unbelievable love’ she has received.

The host also revealed she had received the ‘most beautiful handwritten letter’ from David and Victoria Beckham as well as from King Charles, Prince William and Kate.

Garraway added: ‘I know that Catherine has been in hospital herself, so I really appreciated that. And I had a letter from the King, who knows a lot about grief. It was lovely to hear from them and understand the emotions that I am going through’.

The presenter, whose husband Derek Draper died on January 3 aged 56, took a break from her presenting role last December after he had a cardiac arrest. She is claimed to be under financial pressure after spending almost £1million on medical bills.

TV presenter Kate Garraway returned to ITV's Good Morning Britain via a videolink today

TV presenter Kate Garraway returned to ITV’s Good Morning Britain via a videolink today



Kate Garraway thanked viewers of ITV's Good Morning Britain for their support today

Kate Garraway thanked viewers of ITV’s Good Morning Britain for their support today

Kate Garraway and her children - Darcey, 17, and Billy, 14 - leave Derek Derek's funeral at the Church Of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, North West London, last Friday

Kate Garraway and her children – Darcey, 17, and Billy, 14 – leave Derek Derek’s funeral at the Church Of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, North West London, last Friday

Darcey (right) was among the pall bearers for her father's funeral in Primrose Hill last Friday

Darcey (right) was among the pall bearers for her father’s funeral in Primrose Hill last Friday

Garraway also said her ’emotions are at 110 per cent’ following the funeral, and spoke of the ‘outpouring of love for everyone that has supported me’.

She said she was told Draper had 24 hours to live a month before he eventually died.

Garraway also discussed her daughter Darcey’s role as a pallbearer at the service, saying: ‘Darcey came into the room when we were talking about it [funeral plans] and said please will you let me carry the coffin.

‘And I thought, crikey, that’s a practical challenge, anybody who’s ever done it, it’s a heavy thing. And she said I want to do it and basically insisted on doing it and I thought that was a beautiful thing that she carried her dad.’

Of Darcey and son Billy, 14, she added: ‘For their grieving, we are in the foothills, we know there is a long way to go.’

She continued: ‘They didn’t want to pressure him to keep going. I don’t think he did feel that, I think he kept going because he wanted to be here.’

Meanwhile Garraway confirmed she will return to the desk on GMB on Thursday and joked: ‘I’m going to be looking forward to a blow dry.’


She said she will also be cracking out the fake eyelashes and fake tan, adding: ‘Don’t worry – I am going to be looking a lot more respectable.’

Garraway went on: ‘I am looking forward to coming into the world and connecting with everyone again.

‘Thank you for having me back but have a little patience, I might be a bit rusty. I think there is a new king. Have I caught up with that?’

Garraway also said she has received ‘extraordinary’ messages of condolence from unexpected places.

She told GMB: ‘I had the most beautiful letter from David and Victoria Beckham – handwritten, very good handwriting… that was Darcey’s observation.

‘And from the Royal Family – Catherine and William sent a beautiful letter, and I know Catherine has been in hospital herself.

‘Even the King, because there is somebody knows about grief, that anticipatory grief where you know something has a risk of happening and how different it is when it does happen.’

Garraway began the interview by saying: ‘Morning, welcome to my home, we’ve got Rab here and Mark and Simon who of course you know very well and I do.

‘The first thing they said is ‘shall we shoot this that way because it’s tidier’. And I said ‘I think it’s a bit late for that now’. Let’s just own the mess and go with it. So here you are, Lego and chaos. Lovely to speak to you.’

ITV released a trailer yesterday ahead of Kate Garraway's return to Good Morning Britain

ITV released a trailer yesterday ahead of Kate Garraway’s return to Good Morning Britain

Speaking about the book of condolence, Garraway told Reid and fellow presenter Richard Madeley: ‘They (the crew) arrived with this this morning. I believe Susanna you were part of this. This is from you, beautifully done, thank you. Messages for Derek. And it’s a strange thing.

‘I’ve also got by the way here three baskets full of messages, cards from viewers, from crew there, and I’m sure you picked out many of them from here. It’s just amazing. It feels like my emotions are at 110 per cent.

‘The unbelievable love that we all have as a GMB family. It’s just wonderful, and ITV generally. I think we are just very, very lucky – you’re going to make me cry already, so let’s try and get a couple of minutes in – the love that we have as a family altogether which is people watching at home.

‘It’s you at home, that we’re so connected, and we’ve always been connected in all our joys and all our fun and the challenges of life of which poor Derek has faced head on and our family has done as well.

‘But having those messages, it makes me weep because I feel so grateful, and I’m also aware that there are people this morning that don’t have that sense of love and just want to share with you.’

She also praised Draper’s ‘spirit and fight to keep going’ and said her children Darcey and Billy had been ‘extraordinary throughout’.

Garraway continued: ‘It feels like five years and two minutes since Derek was in a positive place before the cardiac arrest which took him from us.’

A wedding picture of Kate Garraway and Derek Draper from 2005 was in the trailer yesterday

A wedding picture of Kate Garraway and Derek Draper from 2005 was in the trailer yesterday

She added that people were asking why she was going back to work so soon, but said: ‘Life has to start. We have to pick ourselves up and go on.

‘That’s what Derek would want me to do. Thank you to everyone who made it possible.’

Garraway is said to be ‘keen to keep busy and get back to work’, and is also hoping to return to her show on Smooth Radio. She is provisionally scheduled to return full-time, but ITV have offered her the option to take time off as and when she needs.

The funeral of Draper – which was attended by figures including ex-prime minister Sir Tony Blair, musician Sir Elton John and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – was held last Friday at the Church Of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, North West London.

Ahead of Garraway’s return to GMB, a post on the show’s X account said yesterday: ‘Tomorrow Kate Garraway joins us to talk for the first time since the death of her beloved husband Derek. Watch from 6am on ITV.’

In a short video accompanying the post, which included a series of images and clips of the pair, an ITV voiceover said: ‘Kate Garraway has shared the story of caring for Derek over the last four years, highlighting the struggle faced by thousands.

Kate Garraway is seen in a trailer released yesterday ahead of her interview on Monday

Kate Garraway is seen in a trailer released yesterday ahead of her interview on Monday

‘Tomorrow, she returns to Good Morning Britain to talk for the first time since the death of her beloved husband.’

After the funeral Garraway, wearing a long black coat and pearl necklace and carrying a candle, left the church with the couple’s children – Darcey, 17, and Billy, 14.

Former political lobbyist-turned-psychologist Draper married Karraway at the same church in September 2005.

Darcey acted as a pall bearer when the coffin, covered with purple and white flowers, made its way out of the church.

Draper fell seriously ill during the early part of the pandemic in March 2020 and spent 13 months in hospital before he was discharged.


He died on January 3 after suffering long-lasting symptoms from coronavirus.

A key figure in the early years of New Labour in the 1990s, Draper was a former researcher for Lord Peter Mandelson.

Former Labour MPs such as Lord Mandelson and Ed Balls – who also now works as a GMB presenter – paid their respects last Friday and Sir Tony gave a speech during the eulogies.

Mourners also included shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband, Sir Tony’s wife Cherie Blair and former Number 10 director of communications Alastair Campbell.

Draper set up the Progress organisation with Liam Byrne, who went on to become a Labour MP, and was also an author.

Kate Garraway follows the coffin into the funeral service of her husband Derek Draper at the Church Of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, North West London, last Friday

Kate Garraway follows the coffin into the funeral service of her husband Derek Draper at the Church Of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, North West London, last Friday

He wrote the book Blair’s Hundred Days which chronicled some of Sir Tony’s first year as prime minister, along with Life Support: A Survival Guide For The Modern Soul.

Sir Elton, who attended the funeral with his husband David Furnish and had offered comfort to Garraway and Draper through his illness, held the order of service in his hands as he exited the church.

He also sang his ballad Skyline Pigeon – which contains the lyrics ‘fly away, skyline pigeon fly, towards the dreams, you’ve left so very far behind’ – in tribute to Draper.

The hymns sung include Lord Of The Dance by Sydney Carter and psalm 23 The Lord’s My Shepherd.

A choir also performed songs in this order: Gospel Acclamation Alleluia, Alleluia!, Sanctus And Benedictus, Agnus Dei, God Be In My Head by Sir Henry Walford Davies and canticle Nunc Dimittis.

GMB stars Charlotte Hawkins, Ben Shephard, Richard Madeley, Alex Beresford, Rob Rinder, Susanna Reid, Sean Fletcher and Richard Arnold also attended the funeral.

Kate Garraway and Derek Draper at the National Television Awards in London in 2007

Kate Garraway and Derek Draper at the National Television Awards in London in 2007

Singer and TV presenter Myleene Klass, who has previously stepped in to host Garraway’s radio show, and actress Tina Hobley, who has been on Holby City and presented on Smooth Radio, were also among at the service.

Those at the church also included journalist Robert Peston, talent manager Jonathan Shalit, radio presenter Roman Kemp, former Sky News political editor Adam Boulton and former political editor of GMTV and ex-Labour MP, Gloria De Piero.

Sir Elton had previously invited Draper and Garraway to be guests of honour at his Farewell Yellow Brick Road concert at London’s O2 last year.

Garraway told her Smooth Radio listeners in April 2023 that Sir Elton had been ‘so supportive’ of her family since her husband fell ill.

TV presenter Fiona Phillips and This Morning editor Martin Frizell, who both worked on the former ITV morning programme GMTV, and former GMB star Piers Morgan, were also in attendance last Friday.


Garraway, a former GMTV presenter, often provided health updates about her husband on the ITV morning programme and fronted two documentaries on the channel about how the family’s life had changed following his illness.

When she won the authored documentary prize at the National Television Awards for ITV’s Caring For Derek, she brought Darcey along with her when she went to the ceremony in 2022.

Draper was admitted to hospital in December after having a cardiac arrest.

Garraway announced her husband’s death on Instagram, with a post saying: ‘I’m sad to have to tell you all that my darling husband Derek has passed away’.

‘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.

‘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.’

Draper, a former director of lobbying firm GPC Market Access, was caught up in the lobbygate scandal in the 1990s and left politics.

He later founded and edited LabourList, a left-wing rival to online portals such as Conservative Home, but later stepped down from the site in 2009.

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