Kate Garraway reveals fears for children Billy and Darcy amid Derek Draper’s health battle
KATE Garraway revealed her fears for her children Billy and Darcy amid her husband’s health battle.
Derek Draper is currently paralysed and cannot eat or drink unaided as he requires round-the-clock care.
Good Morning Britain personality Kate, 56, has opened up on the worries she shares for her children Darcy, 17, and Billy, 14.
Derek, 56, still struggles to communicate since coronavirus ravaged his body and brain.
Their kids were 14-years-old and 10-years-old when their father was first hospitalised after he first caught the virus.
The Life Stories presenter can just ask her partner to say “Knuckle down” to their kids if they do not complete their homework.
But otherwise, she said that she feels like she cannot share the usual worries about school, parenting, or work with her husband as they grow up.
Reflecting on her journey, Kate told The Times: “They are completely different people. I’m effectively on my own and I don’t know where I am with them, really.”
“Derek was always the line in the sand. I could say no a million times and they would always push their luck, but all Derek ever had to say was, ‘Enough!’.
“He had such forcefulness about him. He’d call family meetings and be all very psychotherapist-y.”
After leaving the world of political lobbying, Derek founded a consultancy company as well as his own psychotherapy practice.
And the ITV presenter admitted that she misses the times that Derek would use the practises from his clinic to deal with family issues.
Kate admitted: “My instinct is always keep everything good, keep everything nice, but he was always fine with stand-up rows.
“He said it was all about boundary-setting, so I always felt he was going to be amazing in their teens.
“So I feel, like, ‘Derek, of all the times, I am not equipped for this without you.’ And it makes me miss the old Derek so much.”
Meanwhile, the fear of him dying has never left Kate, because he has been rushed back to hospital so many times.
Derek has since been battling a variety of health problems, after the virus caused brain inflammation, kidney failure, and damage to his liver and pancreas.
Her latest concern for Derek is that he can’t breathe out carbon dioxide or breathe in oxygen efficiently, which she says “is slightly poisoning his body all the time”.
Opening up about how hard it is, Kate, 56, told Sunday Times: “Apart from TV award dos, but they’re work events. I am a shell of a person
“Work is my equivalent of going for a cocktail. It’s therapy.”