Kate Garraway has revealed her husband Derek Draper “burst into tears” after being reunited with their children Darcey and Billy.
The 53-year-old GMB host welcomed her husband back to their family home in London on Wednesday (April 7).
Derek, also 53, was hospitalised in March 2020 with coronavirus, having spent an entire year in hospital.
What did Kate Garraway say about her husband?
Now, the former political advisor has finally reunited with his wife and children.
Derek will receive round-the-clock care.
Sharing the news on GMB today (April 9), Kate opened up on the touching moment Derek returned home.
He immediately burst into tears, there was a lot of hugging and got him inside
She said: “As we pulled up, I was able to come home with him, I could see two little faces of Darcey and Billy looking out of the window and I could literally see them go, ‘He’s here!’ They ran out and opened the door.
“He immediately burst into tears, there was a lot of hugging and got him inside. He absolutely knew he was home.”
In addition, Kate shared: “He is responding all the time. What he’s not able to do is talk and say, like you might imagine Derek might say on coming home, ‘Why the hell is the place such a mess?’. It’s not like that.
“But he’s absolutely responding and aware where he is. There’s just been so many lovely little moments. I’ve been saying to him all the time in the coma, ‘When you get home you can have one of my casseroles’, which he loves by the way, that’s not a threat, because he can swallow a bit now.
“So I said let’s see if we can get you round a table somehow with the four of us, so we sort of managed to do that.”
However, the transition hasn’t been easy for the family.
Read more: Kate Garraway ‘takes control of husband Derek’s business’ as he remains in hospital
Kate reveals her husband needs ’24-hour care’
Kate explained: “We weren’t all sitting around the dinner table, we constructed a version of it. He can’t really move.
“We do need a lot of help. And it’s not just help with looking after him, because it is 24-hour care, and I haven’t really slept as you can probably tell.
“I will ease off, I’m just very aware at the moment and it’s a whole new team. So he’s probably got a little bit used to the people in hospital and so it’s a new team now that are working with him and helping him to come through.”
Derek still has a long way to go
Furthermore, Derek still has a long way to go to recover from the virus.
The presenter added that while her husband is showing progress, he’s yet to fully recover.
In addition, she explained: “It’s going to take a lot of adjustment. But on top of the care side, there’s the very specialised therapeutic intervention, which will have to come in to make sure that this isn’t just about getting him with us for us, it’s hoping that actually this will prompt… some recovery.”
Despite his struggles, the presenter revealed she’s delighted the family are finally reunited.
And they were even all able to sit down as a family for a meal, with Derek able to join them. Kate detailed how Derek is now able to swallow small amounts of food.
She said that son Billy noted how small his dad’s serving was compared to his old portion sizes – Derek lost over eight stone when he became ill.
Read more: GMB: Kate Garraway accused of ‘interrupting’ guest as viewers divided over clash
Speaking about the kids, Kate went on: “They’ve been amazing actually. One of the things if we’ve now got some big glass doors, so they were outside in the garden.
“I was trying to position him so he could see them, I’m not sure how good his eyesight is, he seemed to be responding and they were running back up to the door going, ‘Dad, dad, watch this’ and then running back out again.
“They’ve both just not stopped cuddling him.”
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