Kate Garraway has revealed her late husband Derek Draper's care 'cost more than her salary from ITV'.
The 56-year-old GMB presenter announced Derek died aged 56 back in January after suffering with the long-term effects of Covid.
The final year of the former political lobbyist's life is documented in a new programme, in which Derek speaks on camera for the first time, saying: "I want you to hear my story."
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He added: "I want to be heard."
In the documentary, titled Kate Garraway: Derek's Story, Kate opens up about the huge financial debt she racked up trying to cover to cost of Derek's round-the-clock care.
Kate revealed: "Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point.
"I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time."
She added: "I’m not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it’s not enough."
In the doc, Kate continued: "Time and time again the system tell us that Derek isn’t sick enough, doesn’t have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care.
"I’ve appealed but that still hasn’t been processed two-and-a-half, three years later.
"If this is what it’s like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else?
"Something has to be done, or the whole service, the people working in it, everything is going to break."
She then shared the exact number she paid for Derek's care.
"Derek’s care, the basic needs, not including any therapy, which I am happy to pay on top, is nearly £4,000 a week," Kate said, before asking: "How can I afford that? How can anybody afford £16,000 a month?
"Please God, there could be another 40 years of this."
She continued: "We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work in unbelievably complicated, and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need.
"Why is it that people who get sick and it’s no longer considered the right thing for them to be in hospital… why does coming home feel like falling off a cliff?"
Elsewhere in the docu-film, Kate opened up about how Derek's health struggles alongside her new role as his carer impacted their relationship.
"I have accepted that (my future as a carer), but how that translates into the relationship is a work in progress," she explained. "Sometimes you show love with a big bunch of flowers, sometimes it’s bringing a cup of tea at the right moment, and he can’t do that any of those things for me."
Kate added: "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, so we have got a whole journey to go on there."
Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story airs tonight (26 March) at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV.
Topics: Kate Garraway, Celebrity, TV And Film, Documentaries, Money, Sex and Relationships, Health, Covid-19, Coronavirus, ITV
Rhiannon Ingle