Kate Garraway has revealed it was Piers Morgan who encouraged her to pour her heart into a book amid her husband Derek Draper’s battle with Covid-19.
Derek recently returned home after spending more than a year in hospital after his body was ravaged by the effects of coronavirus. He currently requires 24-hour care as he continues his recovery, with Kate transforming the ground floor of the family home to accommodate his needs.
She’d returned to work on Good Morning Britain last year and continued to take MPs to task over the pandemic, while also penning a book, The Power Of Hope, behind the scenes, which charted the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on her life – and turns out we have her GMB colleague to thank for that one.
Speaking about her decision to pen the memoir, she said on LBC on Tuesday: ‘It was actually Piers Morgan who very early on, when I was sort of ranting at anybody, that’s the wrong word, bleeding at anybody and trying to make sense of what was going on, he just said “you’ve got to write this down”.’
Kate admitted she ignored his advice, ‘because there didn’t seem time to write it down’.
She went on: ‘He said “just write words that you remember”. You know that strange feeling when time kind of contracts and expands when you go through anything? […] He said “you won’t remember some of these things”.
‘Also, I was taking huge amount of notes. In the very early days when Derek was sick and I was trying to get through to hospitals you were getting different people each time, often people not treating Derek because they were too busy, it was other people to try and help out and pass on information to worried relatives.
‘I began to take lots of notes about oxygen levels and liver enzymes so I’ve got this strange medical book on my shelves, but actually it’s the emotion that really needs to be processed.’
The journalist added: ‘So then as time went on people have been so kind to me and people have shared with me lots of things they’ve been through, not just to do with Covid, although let’s be honest there are still hundreds of thousands still suffering…it was really supportive to me and also I was lucky enough to have people who could offer advice on techniques to get you through crises, so I wanted to share those.
‘I think hope has got me through this, so far, touching wood…and it’s nice to be able to share some of the things I’ve learned.’
Piers has supported Kate, alongside their fellow GMB comrades, throughout Derek’s hospitalisation, very early on saying he was rooting for the former lobbyist in his recovery.
He wrote on social media: ‘This breaks my heart.
‘Few happier, more positive people than @kategarraway. Or a more loyal, decent friend & colleague.
‘So many families like hers going through so much unimaginable anguish in this crisis. Sending all my love to Kate & continuing to root for Derek.’
The Power Of Hope is released tomorrow.
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