Lorraine Kelly has said an emotional tribute to Kate Garraway as her husband Derek Draper has been readmitted to hospital.
The Scottish TV presenter sent her love to Kate on Thursday morning's show after Charlotte Hawkins stood in for the 55-year-old presenter on GMB. Kate has temporarily stepped away from her role at Good Morning Britain as she rushed to her husbands side in hospital.
The ITV presenter is reportedly doing "everything she can" to help her husband, 54, who is "seriously unwell" - after being readmitted to hospital suffering complications two-and-a-half years after first contracting Covid. Former Lobbyist Derek Draper contracted Covid-19 in 2020 and has since become one of the worst affected cases to have survived the virus.
He was released from hospital last year but continues to experience health challenges, with Kate becoming his carer. Joined by Dr Hilary Jones on her show, Lorraine gave an emotional tribute to her ITV co-star during this tough time for her family.
Lorraine said: "I just wanted to say, we are obviously sending all of our love to our Kate. I know a lot of you have seen in the newspapers and online that Derek is back in hospital and obviously, you know, battling the effects after Covid. We just want to send our love to them, don't we?"
Dr Hilary Jones added: "Absolutely, yes, it's such a difficult situation. He's going to have ongoing problems but we send all our love to Kate and the family." Lorraine said: "She's amazing. Not one to complain or say 'why me?' or any of that. She's incredible."
Kate, 55, has always been open about her husbands health woes and recent reports reveal he's taken "a very serious turn for the worse" as she stays by his side in hospital. She revealed Derek was rushed back to hospital earlier this month and had been there for two months. Prior to this she said he had been “in and out” of hospital.
A source close to the family told the Mirror Derek is "seriously unwell", but the family know he is in the best hands. They added Kate was putting all her energy into caring for him which meant she couldn’t host GMB as normal this week and needed to concentrate on Derek.
They said: "Derek is back in hospital in a very serious condition but the family knows he is in the best hands. Kate is doing everything she can for her husband. He comes first and so work will have to take a back seat this week."
While an ITV spokesperson added: "Kate is taking some time off work over the next few days, and is hoping to be back to her normal presenting duties as soon as possible."
It's been an emotional 24 hours for Lorraine after attending pal Dame Deborah James funeral on July 20, as she praised the service. Speaking on her ITV show on Thursday morning, she said the funeral was “perfection, as you would expect”.
Speaking about the funeral on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, 62-year-old Kelly said: “We celebrated the life of a truly incredible person yesterday, our Dame Deborah. She is remarkable. It was beautiful, so beautiful, such a celebration of an amazing, amazing woman.
“There were a lot of tears and there really was genuinely a lot of laughs too, so it was great. She planned it all and it was perfection, as you would expect.”
Speaking later on her own Lorraine ITV show, Kelly added: “I was very honoured to be there with some of our team. It was a beautiful beautiful send-off, it was so lovely and it was sad but it was also a celebration of a wonderful wonderful woman.
“Hugo wrote a poem for his mum and her husband said the most beautiful eulogy, it was sad but also very very uplifting. Her legacy is also her children and they are incredible incredible young people.
“The final weeks and months of her life she did so much, she achieved more in the last days of her life than most of us do in our whole lives. The amount of money she raised was astonishing. She will never ever be forgotten. Yesterday a whole bunch of people said we would get a tattoo with rebellious hope and I think I agreed to that.”
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