Kate Garraway: I do not regret care debts for Derek Draper

The Good Morning Britain star has revealed she was spending £16,000 a month on basic care for Draper before his death in January at the age of 56.

He had endured a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.

An ITV documentary, which followed the last year of Draper’s life and was completed after his death, saw Garraway reveal the cost of his care was more than her salary from ITV and caused her to rack up huge debts.

She told ITV’s This Morning: “I will pay it, absolutely. And I don’t regret it, I don’t begrudge it.

“It was the right thing to do. You have no choice and I was lucky because I had a job where people understood and gave me time to rush off to hospital at a moment’s notice, or be around ,or go to the appointments, or be there to care.

“There was one time when they cancelled the care, which turned out to be a mistake, and in the end the carer did turn up even though they didn’t know they were going to get paid.

“And that’s the people that you’re dealing with, they’re travelling a long way, they don’t always live near you, they came.

“For those that are professional carers that are doing it on their own, it’s a massive thing and I don’t even think it’s political.

“I think it’s all of us, we’ve just got to realise that we have to make this a priority.

“As a society, we have to because we’re all going to get sick, we’re all going to be vulnerable, we’re all going to need it, or be the person doing the caring, probably both in a lifetime.

“So, we have to find a way of making it important enough to us, apart from when you’re in it, and then it’s all you think about.”

Asked about criticism she has faced for making the documentary, which follows on from two other programmes about Draper’s battle with Covid and her struggles navigating the care system, Garraway said: “I think people are probably a bit bored of me, frankly.

“I think I think they’re a bit bored of me banging on about the same thing.

“I understand that, really, and I don’t think I would have made a third one, but Derek wanted to but I’m glad I did, because what I’ve now realised is that people say ‘Oh, just because you’re on the telly you’re talking about this’.

“Yeah, actually, because those other people can’t, and they’re saying to me ‘please don’t give up because I can’t tell anyone other than myself in the mirror, or my long-suffering friends who also can’t do anything’.

“So, I sort of have to and I’m sorry about that. I hope that if people do watch it, they will see that it’s coming from a different place.

“It probably just looks like ‘Oh, for goodness sake, Kate, stop going on about your own problems’.

“I’m really not meaning to go on about my problems. I’m trying to go on about everybody else’s problems.”