The documentary Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, charts the final year of Derek Draper’s life.

By James Hibbs

Published: Tuesday, 26 March 2024 at 21:30 PM


Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story will air tonight (Tuesday 26th March) on ITV, and it will document the final year of Garraway’s husband Derek Draper’s life.

Draper died earlier this year at the age of 56, four years after he was diagnosed with COVID in 2020. He suffered severe health problems following this diagnosis, and before his death said that he wanted the documentary to be made so he could “be heard”.

The heart-wrenching documentary features a discussion Garraway had last year about the way in which her relationship with Draper was evolving.

Asked whether she felt like she had accepted she would have to care for Derek forever, Kate said, as seen in the documentary: “That bit, yes. I have, I have accepted that completely. I think that is our role, but how that translates into the relationship is a work in progress.”

Kate Garraway for ITV documentary Derek's Story, wearing a red top
Kate Garraway for ITV documentary Derek’s Story.
Flicker Productions for ITV

She explained: “Sometimes you show love with a big bunch of flowers, maybe, and other times it’s bringing a cup of tea at the right moment, and he can’t do any of those things for me.

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“So he’s trying to work out how to love me. I know he loves me, but how does he show that? And I’m trying to work out if I feel loved by him. I know I am loved, but… so we’ve got a whole journey to go on there.”

Garraway previously said of the documentary when it was announced earlier this month: “Obviously, when we started making this documentary early last year, we had no idea the events that would unfold that ultimately took Derek from us.

“And in January 2024, I wondered if it was right that it should ever come to air.

“But I didn’t want to let those who have given us so much support over the last four years down, and the carers paid and unpaid who, in their thousands of letters to me, feel Derek’s story has given them a voice.

“Also, I remembered so vividly that the idea of making this third documentary at all came from Derek himself.”