Lorraine Kelly reveals effect of Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper’s Covid battle on entire ITV morning team

As Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper continues to recovery following a debilitating battle with Covid-19, Lorraine Kelly has reflected on the impact of his hospitalisation on the entire ITV presenting team.

According to the star, who fronts the morning programme straight after Kate’s Good Morning Britain, Derek’s illness, as well as the daily presence of Dr Hilary Jones on both GMB and Lorraine, meant the whole team was taking the pandemic extremely seriously behind-the-scenes.

Derek spent more than a year in hospital after contracting coronavirus in March last year, which is thought to be the longest period a patient had been in hospital due to the condition in the UK.

He has since returned to the family home he shares with Kate and their two children, Darcey and Billy, however he continues to require around-the-clock care.

Speaking about Derek, Lorraine told MailOnline: ‘It hit us all really hard when Kate’s husband got Covid. He got it very badly of course.

‘And with that and having Dr Hillary on our team, we were so on it at ITV. Everything was done so well in terms of safety and social distancing and hand-washing.’

She added of Kate in particular: ‘He is back home. And it’s a case of baby steps. But Katie is just incredible.’

Journalist Kate has shared a heartbreaking update on Derek’s recovery, revealing her husband probably ‘wouldn’t recover’ if he didn’t make progress in the two years following his initial hospitalisation.

The 53-year-old suffered from rare brain inflammation and the virus attacked his lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and pancreas, with doctors saying that Derek had the worst Covid-19 infection of any surviving patient.

In her book, The Power of Hope, Kate explained that doctors said they couldn’t yet chart Derek’s recovery as they had ‘never seen anything like this before’.

The 54-year-old wrote: ‘I had already waited so long. “How long before you know more? Not how long will it take for him to recover, because you don’t know if he can even recover, but how long before you might know more?”

‘After another long pause, he looked straight at me, then away. “Well, Kate” – the first time he had used my name – “I think it’s fair to say if he is still like this after two years we will know there is very little chance of him making any meaningful recovery.”’

While he has been able to speak a few words to Kate and their kids, the GMB star admitted that her husband is still ‘devastated’ by the effects of Covid-19.

MORE : Kate Garraway thanks Martin and Roman Kemp for visiting her son while Derek Draper was in hospital: ‘You were both very kind to me’

MORE : Kate Garraway’s mum rushed to hospital on family holiday amid break from caring for Derek Draper

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