Kate Garraway returned to the desk on Good Morning Britain (GMB) on Thursday, less than a week after the funeral of her husband Derek Draper.
The TV presenter is back at work on the ITV breakfast show following an emotional appearance on the programme on Monday morning when she discussed how her children have been handling the loss of their father.
Speaking about the difficult past few weeks since the death of her husband on January 3, Garraway told co-presenter Ben Shephard: “It was really lovely to feel so much love from everybody here.”
She added: “Everybody has just been so nice and everybody, all of you...it’s just amazing, and I keep thinking ‘let’s keep that lovely feeling going’, because I’m very lucky to have it.
“Because a lot of people don’t have the jobs that you and I have so therefore they do have a lot of love around them from the the people they know, but it’s harder for people to feel it because it doesn’t get seen in the same way.”
Draper’s funeral, held last Friday, was attended by figures including former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, musician Sir Elton John and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
The service was held at the Church of St Mary The Virgin in Primrose Hill, north-west London where the TV star and the former political lobbyist-turned-psychologist married in September 2005.
Draper fell seriously ill during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and spent 13 months in hospital before he was discharged.
Welcome back @kategarraway ❤️ We're so happy to have you back pic.twitter.com/qUlmiiREMh
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 8, 2024
He died aged 56 after suffering long-lasting symptoms from coronavirus.
On Mondy Garraway thanked viewers for the “incredible” love and support she has received, adding that it was lovely, but “odd” to be back at the desk.
“The make-up girls had me in tears this morning just by saying hello,” she said at the beginning of the programme.
“Thank you to all of you at home as well, I know I mentioned it on Monday but you have been incredible.”
Co-host Ben Shephard joked he would give Garraway a bit of “leeway” before saying she did her husband proud with the “extraordinary funeral”.
“You really did Derek proud, it was an extraordinary thing,” he said.
Garraway said: “I definitely wanted to make it about Derek not about me.
“It was really lovely as well to feel so much love from everybody here.”
During an appearance on GMB on Monday, Garraway praised the strength their children Darcey and Billy have shown since their father died.
She also addressed her decision to return to work, saying: “I think some people say: why are you going back to work? Well, everybody does have to, don’t they? Life has to start.”
She also joked: “I’m going to be looking forward to a blow dry.
“I’m going to be finding fake eyelashes. I’m going to be very much looking forward to applying fake tan.
“Don’t worry, I will be a little bit more respectable by Thursday. I’ll be doing a lot of homework between now and then because I feel like I’ve been in a very small bubble.
“So I’m going to look forward really to coming into the world and sharing what’s going on for everybody else and connecting with everybody again.
“So, thank you for having me back, and have a little bit of patience. I might be a bit rusty … There is a new king, isn’t there? Have I caught up with that?”
