Kate Garraway celebrated her husband Derek Draper's birthday this weekend, alongside her children.
The Good Morning Britain host appeared on the ITV chat show this morning to explain why she was absent from her usual presenting post yesterday.
Explaining that she had swapped her shifts with co-host Charlotte Hawkins in order to spend some time off in honour of Derek's birthday, Kate said, "I did a flip-flop with Charlotte, didn't I. Mix things up a little bit!"
Derek was taken into intensive care back in March after contracting coronavirus and is still in hospital with limited consciousness, battling the life threatening impact the disease had on his body.
Confessing that she and her children, Darcey and Billy, were unable to see Derek in person on the difficult day, Kate said, "It was Derek's birthday on Saturday as well, which was obviously a challenging one under the circumstances.
"We managed to FaceTime him and sing 'Happy Birthday', and we had a cake, which we had on FaceTime.
"It's very challenging. [The kids] are doing brilliantly with it though.
"We did it with Derek's family, as well, we managed to technically hook up, and sing 'Happy Birthday' and just hope the love seeps through really."
Sharing more of the touching ways she is helping her young kids get through the awful situation, Kate went on, "we planted loads of plants when Derek was first ill, and, you know, they've come and gone.
"And we're picking tomatoes that we grew from seed and it's amazing how nature helps you mark the passage of time, which is therapeutic in a way, because we'd say, 'Let's plant these and then when dad's better next year, he can see them come up.'
"We've been trying to keep things moving forward, but it helps."
This comes after Kate was forced to hit back at trolls who have slammed her for "laughing and joking" on air during her tough time.
"We've talked about this, with me doing this show, if we're having a laugh and joke - because that's our job in the morning to cheer everybody - people then say does that mean you're not worried about Derek or you're not feeling sad about."
