Kate Garraway reveals husband Derek's teary reaction to returning home from hospital after a year

Kate Garraway husband Derek Draper and children Billy and Darcey
(Image credit: GC Images)

Kate Garraway has confirmed that her husband Derek Draper has returned home after over a year in hospital.

Derek fell critically ill in March last year when he contracted Covid-19.

The virus had a huge impact on his body, causing his organs to fail and for him to become desperately weak, losing eight stone in weight.

Derek has been drifting in and out of consciousness for a year and living under intensive care but has now finally returned home.

Kate confirmed that Derek had rejoined her and their children Billy, 11, and Darcey, 14, at their family home.

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Kate Garraway - The Power Of Hope: A story of love, fear and never giving up
Kate's book about Derek's devastating health battle and the impact it's had on their family is out April 29th.

Derek Draper

Credit: Getty

Sharing the emotional details of the moment Derek finally arrived home, Kate recalled, "When we came in the door, as we pulled up... I could see two little faces of Darcey and Billy looking out of the window and they ran out of the door, and Derek immediately burst into tears and there was a lot of hugging."

Speaking to Good Morning Britain colleagues Ranvir Singh and Ben Shephard, Kate added, "He absolutely knew he was home."

Explaining Derek's current state and how life will move forward in a different way now he is home, Kate continued, "He is responding all of the time, but he's not able to talk... but he is responding and aware of where he is. There have been so many lovely little moments.

"When he was in a coma I kept saying, 'When you get home you can have one of my casseroles,' and when he got back I realised I was laying the table for four. It just feels like the start of a huge chapter."

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Kate also opened up on the extra help that Derek will need as he continues to recover at home.

"He can't really move, we do need a lot of help, and it's not just help looking after him - which is 24-hour care... it's a whole new team so he's probably gotten used to the people in the hospital but now there are new people so it's going to take a lot of adjustment.

"But there's also the therapies... he's sort of plateaued at this level and we're hugely grateful for this level but we want to see if he can speak more and move more and see what we can draw out. It's going to be very slow I'm afraid, and a bit of a wait and see."

Caitlin Elliott
Junior News Editor

Caitlin is a Junior News Editor for Goodto.com, covering all things royal, celeb, lifestyle, food, and family. Having set her sights on becoming a magazine journalist when she was a child, Caitlin took on work experience stints at local papers and titles such as Cosmopolitan, Now, Reveal and Take a Break while studying for her Multimedia Journalism degree and has interviews with celebs, reality stars and the Archbishop of Canterbury under her belt (of course, she couldn't resist asking him about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry).