Kate Garraway’s Good Morning Britain colleagues have sent her their well wishes, after it was reported her husband Derek Draper was taken to hospital.
The former political lobbyist previously spent a year in hospital after contracting Covid in March 2020, which has caused long-lasting damage to his organs.
Amid Derek’s latest health concerns, Kate has been absent from her hosting role on Good Morning Britain.
Addressing this on Thursday’s edition of the ITV breakfast show, Ben Shephard turned to co-host Charlotte Hawkins and said: “We are missing a member of the team, aren’t we?”
“We are yes,” Charlotte replied. “So Kate’s not here. She’s taking some time out to be with Derek at the moment so we’re sending her lots of love.
“Lots of you have been in touch with messages of support, so we wish him well.”
Ben said: “Thank you for those messages, we’ll definitely pass them on. You know how much Kate appreciates all the support that she gets and fingers crossed Derek will be home as soon as possible.”
After originally contracting Covid, Derek was placed into a coma and spent a year in intensive care.
He returned to his family home in April 2021, where he has needed constant care.
Earlier this month, Kate said Derek had been “coming in and out” of hospital over the last couple of months.
“I’m really tired but I take it day by day to level out the ups and downs,” she told The Sun.
“I try to embrace life, especially the kids [the couple have two children, 16-year-old Darcey and 12-year-old Billy] as we’ve had two and a half years of it. Their lives have changed and they need to do things.”
Throughout Derek’s health issues, the daytime star has been candid when updating the public on his condition, and won praise in 2021 for the documentary Kate Garraway: Finding Derek, which won a National Television Award.
She followed this with a second documentary, subtitled Caring For Derek, earlier this year, showing how her family life had changed in the wake of his illness.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
