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Holly Willoughby in tears as Kate Garraway tells of 'loneliness' amid husband's COVID fight

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on <em>This Morning</em>. (ITV)
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning. (ITV)

Holly Willoughby broke down in tears on This Morning as Kate Garraway opened up about her husband’s battle against COVID.

Garraway’s husband Derek Draper returned home in April after spending more than a year in hospital and now needs round the clock care.

She told presenters Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that Draper's progress was “painfully slow” and that he still cannot move much or speak, leaving her in a "weird, strange kind of vortex of almost bereavement".

Read more: Kate Garraway 'torn' about asking for NTA votes for COVID battle documentary

Asked by Willoughby how she stayed “on track” herself with so much going on, mother-of-two Garraway said she felt very lucky to have her Good Morning Britain job, her home and so much support.

But she added: “I’m not sure I am on track really, I think I’m probably doing a lot of paddling under the surface.

“I think one of the things, I was talking to someone else who is caring for somebody that’s in a slightly different situation to Derek but still with some of the challenges Derek’s got, and they said there is a really weird gnawing loneliness which is that, sorry, not to sound ungrateful because he is here and so many people aren’t.

“But you just want to share with him the problems and you just want those little looks he’d give you when the kids are doing something and because he can’t and you have to keep hoping he can, you are in a sort of weird, strange kind of vortex of almost bereavement, but grateful that’s he’s alive.

“It is a very strange feeling.”

LONDON - APRIL 03:  TV Presenter Kate Garraway and husband  Derek Draper arrives at the Galaxy British Book Awards at Grosvenor House on April 3, 2009 in London, England.  (Photo by Jon Furniss/WireImage)
Kate Garraway and Derek Draper in 2009. (WireImage)

Garraway added: “It’s a day at a time and trying to keep going and trying to just be really grateful for the people around me that are helping and that he’s here and that he’s got a chance.”

Willoughby could not hold back the tears as she listened to Garraway talk.

Crying, she told the TV star: “I’m sorry, you’ve done so well.”

“It’s a tough story,” she said.

Garraway replied to say she was sorry Willoughby was upset and wanted to give her a hug.

Garraway told Willoughby and Schofield that although Draper's progress is slow, she feels he knows what she is saying when she talks to him.

“He still has very little movement," she said.

“He still can’t talk really, you can’t have a conversation but he does seem, I believe and actually I think others believe now, that he does understand everything.”

The star said Draper sleeps for 20 out of 24 hours a day, adding: “And that is literally sometimes in the middle of talking to him he’ll fall asleep.”

Read more: Kate Garraway told husband unlikely to recover if no progress in two years

Garraway was speaking ahead of tonight’s (9 September) National Television Awards where her film (Finding Derek) about her husband’s struggle is nominated in the Authored Documentary category.

Watch: Kate Garraway reveals husband Derek Draper can barely talk