Kate Garraway has said that her reveal during Sunday night’s The Masked Singer episode was both “exciting” and “traumatising” for her children.
The ITV gameshow returned on Saturday night (4 January) with host Joel Dommett, panellists Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, new judge Maya Jama and guest judge Mo Farah.
The show sees celebrities perform while disguised in elaborate costumes, as the panel of judges have to decipher their real identities based on their voice and a series of clues.
Saturday night’s show saw viewers guess that the character of Spag Bol – a costume consisting of spaghetti rolled around a fork – could have been the Good Morning Britain host Garraway, due to several clues, including the 6am clock in the opening VT, which was a reference to the start time of the morning TV programme that she fronts.
It was revealed during Sunday’s episode that Spag Bol was indeed Garraway, who became the first star to be eliminated from the series.
After the reveal, Garraway admitted she had kept her identity a secret from her daughter Darcy, 18 and 15-year-old son Billy.
“The kids don’t know, although they did catch me singing, and I said I’m doing something for charity and they said ‘I hope you raise a lot of money!’” said Garraway.
Speaking to her co-hosts Ed Balls and Susanna Reid during Monday morning’s episode of Good Morning Britain, Garraway said that her children were confused as to why they were being “forced” to watch Sunday night’s episode.
“It was very exciting slash traumatising for the family. I got my kids to watch which they were very confused about,” she said. “They were like why are you forcing us to watch this in real time?”
Garraway’s Masked Singer appearance comes after she confronted Wes Streeting live on Good Morning Britain for “excessive, unpayable debt” she built up while caring for her late husband, Derek Draper, who died in 2024 weeks following a cardiac arrest after a years-long battle with the effects of Covid-19.
On the first anniversary of Derek Draper’s death, the health secretary was invited on the breakfast show to discuss Labour’s health plans for the coming term. Garraway challenged Streeting over the expensive costs involved in caring for her husband – previously reported to be around £16,000 per month.
Garraway previously revealed she incurred debts of £500,000 to £800,000, which she told Streeting was “excessive” and “unpayable”.
Speaking to the Labour politician about plans for a new national care service, which will be run independently, Garraway said: “Over the last few weeks, the family and I have been talking about the challenges we faced this time last year. One of the overriding ones when he went back into intensive care before he passed away was dealing with the funding of care.
She continued: “At the time of his death there were two appeals that hadn’t been heard for funding. It kept being pushed back and pushed back. In the meantime, I’m lucky I have an incredible job which is well paid. I was having to fund the situation. Now I’ve got excessive unpayable debt because of it.
“If I’m in that position, what else are people going to be?” Garraway asked, adding: “People can’t afford four more years of this!”
