Kate Garraway's co-hosts revealed the caring advice her daughter Darcy gave after husband Derek Draper's death.
Former spin doctor Mr Draper died on January 3 aged 56 after suffering a heart attack just before Christmas. Prior to this, he had been seriously ill with long Covid and was receiving 24 hour care after he first contracted the illness at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Garraway, 56, who was married to Draper for 18 years and shared two children Darcey and Billy, 14, with him, remained by his side throughout and had regularly documented his health struggles. HIs funeral will take place this Friday, February 2.
Earlier this month, her good friend and GMB co-host Ben Shephard thanked viewers for their "extraordinary" support at this terrible time, which he said she hugely appreciated.
Speaking alongside presenter Ranvir Singh, he said: "She said she's sort of in a strange bubble of her own numbness of grief.
"Her, Billy and Darcey are hunkering down together. Her amazing mum and dad have been with them, they are remarkable. She's got all the right people around her. She wanted everybody to know she will be back as soon as she can."
'She just can't explain how important that has been for her, to know there's so much support for what she's been through.'@benshephard thanks everyone on behalf of Kate Garraway for all of their kind words following her husband Derek's death ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ImkhSuEWMB
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) January 11, 2024
Shephard also noted how everything had "frozen in time" for the family after Draper was admitted to hospital and went on to share the sweet advice that Garraway's daughter had offered her as she left their home for the first time following his passing.
He explained: "They are in the next stages of working out what happens; there's a lot of admin to do when you lose someone. In that brilliant way yesterday, she said, 'I have to go out to go and register the death'.
"She told Darcey, 'Look I'm going to have to go out the house.' And Darcey said, 'I know this is going to be really hard but can I make one suggestion please?' She says, 'Course you can darling'.
"And then Darcey said, 'Can you take the Christmas jumper off and can you brush your hair?'" Shephard said with a laugh.
"And there's that brilliant moment that Kate burst out laughing. She said to me the clocks stopped for us just before Christmas when Derek had that heart attack and she's just starting to come out of that.
"We all know that Kate in the run up to Christmas wears a new Christmas jumper every day, she supports the charity.
"And suddenly she realises yesterday that everything has been frozen in time since then. So now it's about the next part of his journey."
