Ben Shephard delighted Kate Garraway has returned to work

9 July 2020

Ben Shephard has hailed Kate Garraway's "important" return to 'Good Morning Britain'.

Ben Shephard

The 45-year-old presenter heaped praise on his 53-year-old co-star, who has decided to return to the ITV daytime programme following her husband Derek's battle with the coronavirus - which has seen him in coma since March.

Speaking about his friend's return, Ben said: "To get her back in the studio, to get her back here where she belongs with us being able to do this program and do the job that she's so great at, I think is huge.

"It's sort of an important moment, I mean, you know, seeing her real life, the reality of what they are going through so much more tangible."

Kate was happy to be out of her "little bubble of sadness" as she joined Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan on the ITV show on Wednesday (08.07.20) to announce her return despite Derek still being in a "minimal state of consciousness".

She explained: "It's life, it's livelihood, it's fear and anxiety, I have got to get on and do the things I'm good at.

"I'm going to come back on Monday, if you'll have me, you two are going. I've not quite got the fight to be a Piers Morgan but I'm gonna be with Ben Shephard.

"The doctors have said I've got to get on, they've been worried about me."

Kate recently revealed Derek is still "desperately" ill despite some improvements.

She said: "His eyes are opening but we have no knowledge of what he can see or hear. It's a very desperate situation, it's very difficult and of course there's fantastic hope he is still alive, he is the doctors keep saying it is a miracle he's still alive.

"I was speaking to somebody yesterday, a doctor who has treated him in two hospitals and he said, 'He's as sick as anyone I've ever seen in 35 years of medicine, never mind Covid, and some of those people are no longer here.'

"It's great that he's here, there's flickers of hope, his lungs are starting to recover, his kidneys and liver are doing better but they don't know how much better he can get and there's nothing to compare it to."