This Morning’s Holly Willoughby was left in tears after a deeply personal discussion with fellow ITV star Kate Garraway about her husband Derek Draper’s health journey.
Holly Willoughby was brought to tears by Kate Garraway’s bravery after the Good Morning Britain host spoke about her husband Derek Draper’s battle with Covid-19. ITV daytime star Kate's moving documentary Finding Derek has been nominated for a National Television Award, with the ceremony taking place on September 9. Focusing on Derek’s health journey since he was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 symptoms last March, Finding Derek reflects how his devastating battle with the virus has changed Kate and their children’s lives.
Earlier this year, Derek returned home, though things have continued to remain challenging for the family. Now the GMB host has appeared via video link on This Morning to discuss Covid-19 and her husband’s progress with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.
When asked how her life is at the moment, Kate opened up about Derek, explaining, “His progress is tough if I'm honest, it feels like there is no change, it feels painfully slow".
She revealed he is still unable to talk, but shared the positive news that it’s thought he “does understand everything” that is said to him.
As they continued to discuss all that the family are going through and how she’s taking things a “day at a time”, Holly also described her friend as “brave”.
When asked what she might say to those who believe that Covid-19 is not real, Kate had a hugely poignant message - and it soon brought Holly to tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoU96NT4L1Q
“If you don’t think it exists, come and spend an hour in my home,” Kate said. “You don’t want to go through what Derek’s gone through. You don’t want your children to go through what Billy and Darcey are going through."
She continued, “You don’t want the worry that his parents are going through. You don’t want that in your life. And if getting vaccinated makes, you know, the symptoms that you get and the effect of Covid on you or on someone you love better then it kind of seems a no-brainer to me."
Following Kate’s impassioned remarks, the camera panned back to the This Morning hosts, showing Holly wiping the tears from her eyes as she murmured simply, “Sorry Kate”.
“Oh Holly, are you crying...please don’t cry!” Kate exclaimed upon hearing her moving reaction. “I don’t want to make everybody miserable.”
“You’ve done so well,” Holly replied through her tears, praising her astonishing friend. As Phillip reminded viewers that the voting was closing soon for the NTAS, both he and Holly supportively declared, “I’ll see you tonight!” to Kate.
Finding Derek is one of the brilliant documentaries and series up for an NTA tonight. With Kate due to attend, fans will no doubt be tuning in to see if her powerful documentary will be awarded this huge accolade.
