‘THIS IS THE REALITY AND IT'S NOT PRETTY'

AS A NEW DOCUMENTARY REVEALS HOW KATE GARRAWAY AND HER FAMILY HAVE COPED FOLLOWING HUSBAND DEREK’S RETURN HOME FROM HOSPITAL THE STAR OPENS UP ABOUT THE MANY CHALLENGES SHE HAS FACED

- LEO ROBERTS

Arms outstretched in anticipation, Kate Garraway’s son Billy looks like he’s about to burst with joy as his father, Derek Draper, is wheeled through their front door. It’s a hopeful, heartwarming scene that marks Derek’s first time inside the family home in more than a year. The emotion is palpable.

“Oh, darling,” says Kate, as she watches her son share a tender embrace with his father, who is sitting in a wheelchair. It’s one of many intimate moments shared in Kate’s latest documentary, Caring For Derek, which charts her husband’s progress following his return home on 7 April last year.

Before this much-anticipated moment, Derek had spent a staggering 374 days in hospital – including months in an induced coma – while fighting a touch-and-go battle with the life-altering effects of Covid-19.

Despite the success of her award-winning first documentary about the family, Finding Derek, shown last spring, Kate, 54, debated whether or not she should invite the television cameras into her home again.

“I’m very protective of Derek,” she reveals, her face etched with concern. “And I’m very protective of people seeing him vulnerable. But I’ve talked to him a lot about this and I think he understands we have to make it real, because this is the reality of life for people that are caring and it’s the reality of recovering from a life-changing event. And it’s not pretty.”

Rather than dwelling on the many obstacles she faces, Kate is now trying to adjust to her family’s new normal.