Kate Garraway has admitted Derek Draper remains "very damaged" amid his health battles.
The political advisor has been in and out of hospital since contracting coronavirus back in March 2020. He caught the virus over two years ago, but has been incredibly poorly since, with the virus having caused so much damage to his organs.
He spent months and months in hospital before being released home, but he was rushed back into hospital a couple of times for some treatment. Kate had to take time off work to be by her husband's side.
Speaking about Derek in a new episode of ITV documentary, DNA Journey, which airs this evening, she said: "2020 was a devastating year. With Derek, he got very sick very early on in the pandemic and has remained very damaged.
"That is quite well documented because for a lot of people, he's come to symbolise the fight that goes on."
Kate also praised Alison Hammond - who she appears on the show alongside - for being such a support to her.
"Alison, she was messaging me to say she was thinking of me in that way," Kate added of her close bond with her friend and ITV co-star. Alison regularly hosts This Morning whilst Kate appears on Good Morning Britain.
Horrifyingly, Derek had to be rushed back to hospital earlier this year after a battle with sepsis.
Speaking on her return to Good Morning Britain, Kate shared: "I dramatically disappeared and haven’t been here for three weeks now … We were on air and Derek had come out of hospital, he’s been going in and out of hospital for a while for looking at ways to tackle the damage caused by Covid back in 2020. But we haven’t really had any sort of medical eruptions, and then he just was really unwell.
"So it was really dramatic; brilliant work by the A&E, absolutely extraordinary because when you’ve got sepsis, the big challenge is to find the source of infection quickly and get the right antibiotics and his blood pressure was so low."
Derek was also back in hospital a few weeks after to have an operation on his kidneys. At the time, doctors reassured Kate that his procedure is routine, and that there "was no alternative but to operate".
*DNA Journey with Kate Garraway and Alison Hammond is on ITV tonight at 9pm.
