KATE Garraway has said her husband Derek Draper has “slipped back” this year after she was unable to visit him in hospital.
The 53-year-old has been in intensive care for a year now after battling coronavirus which has ravaged his body, causing his liver, kidneys and heart to fail, and Kate has had limited access to him due to the pandemic.
Speaking ahead of her ITV documentary Finding Derek airing tomorrow night, the Good Morning Britain presenter told the Mirror: “Things have regressed a little bit this year since January, but how much that is to do with the restrictions of not being able to visit, is unclear.
“It felt like we were moving forward at Christmas, now it feels like we’ve slipped back.
“And I’ve felt like I’m sort of hanging over the side of a ship, trying to hold onto him, so that when he kind of bobs up from this ocean of unconsciousness, you can see him sort of click in and you don’t know whether it’s because he can suddenly find a way to get out.”
Kate and their children Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11, managed to visit at Christmas but they haven’t been able to physically see him in 2021.
The TV star is hoping to visit Derek again when the latest coronavirus pandemic lockdown lifts.
In her upcoming documentary viewers will see a heartbreaking conversation where Derek says he isn’t sure how to cope while Kate is chatting to him via video call.
He says: “Kate, there’s no way out. There’s no way out.
“I’ve got to the point where I just think f*** it. Just f*** it.”
She asks: “As in die?”
He responds: “Yes … I don’t know how to cope, I don’t know how to cope.”
Kate then says: “You don’t know how to cope with it. OK.
“I know you feel like you’re trapped in your head and it’s terrifying. But you’re coming home, you’re coming back to your life and you will be the person, even better than you were before. You will be.
“I will find a way to make it better. I promised you that I would save you and I’m going to save you, I will find a way, but you just have to hang in there.”
