Kate Garraway has been applauded for her return to ‘Good Morning Britain’ amid Derek Draper’s ongoing struggle to overcome coronavirus. She revealed her son was “emotional” about his father not being able to join them for his early-11th birthday celebrations. The ITV host didn’t disclose any further details about her husband of 15 year’s long road to recovery. And unearthed accounts from the couple reveal their unlikely start and how, despite their differences, they hit it off.
The TV star was paired-off with Derek by the former-GMTV political correspondent Gloria De Piero who “suddenly” suggested him as a suitor over drinks.
Kate told the Guardian in 2005: “But Gloria pitched a person to me who was the old Derek Draper.
“She said ‘oh, he’s amazing, he practically runs the Groucho Club, he runs Soho House, he’s amazing’.
“And when I met him he wasn’t anything like that at all. I liked him straight away; he was funny and clever. But I thought he seemed rather sad.”
She claimed to have preferred that different version of Derek, despite his insistence that she would have “fancied me more”.
During their earlier years a number of jokes had been made about her future husband, notably one cheeky taunt from GMB co-star Piers Morgan after they announced their engagement.
He said: “Derek bloody Draper! If I’d known the bar was set so low, I’d have had a go myself.”
But the pair’s relationship appeared to be reinforced by their care for one another and playful antics, including him jokingly pulling a moonie at the camera during a photoshoot.
Kate confessed there was a vast difference between how they liked people perceive them – and claimed that she regularly attempted to redeem their image.
She said: “Derek used to describe himself as the spin doctor’s spin doctor.
“Now I’m the spin doctor’s spin doctor’s spin doctor. Because everything he says, I counter and gloss.
“If the situation’s going on quite smoothly, Derek will create chaos, just for the fun of it, whereas I see chaos and desperately try to smooth it over.
“So it’s a constant process of eruption and varnishing”