Kate Garraway's husband Derek Draper once told her he feared he couldn’t go on amid his battle with coronavirus and the after-effects.
Kate Garraway
The 'Good Morning Britain' co-host admitted it was "absolutely devastating" to hear Derek - who is still in intensive care 12 months after being admitted to hospital with coronavirus - say he didn't know "how to cope", but she vowed to save him.
She said: "Derek had been drifting in and out of consciousness and when he said that, it was absolutely devastating, but it showed me he was still in there.
"Even though it was terrible to think his spirits were so low."
Derek uttered those words back in November, and doctors told her it left him physically exhausted to speak, describing it as feeling the same as "running three marathons".
She said: "Being able to get those words out, for him physically it’s as tough as running three marathons, that’s the way the doctors described it. It takes huge amounts of energy and spirit for him to do that. It’s so huge for his body to be able to get that out. It’s a huge power of spirit actually to be able to speak out in that way."
The conversation occurred just minutes before she was due to co-host 'GMB' live.
She added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "And then he’s sort of done and I was like, 'Close your eyes, I’m still here, I’m not going to go anywhere, I’m going to stay on the line.'
"So I kept the iPad going all the way into 'Good Morning Britain'. And I said, 'Right, I’m going to go on air now, and I’m going to ask the nurses to put 'Good Morning Britain' on, so you can still see me and then I’ll call you straight afterwards.' It was a very strange, very strange morning."
Kate believes Derek was "at his wits' end physically and mentally" at that point, but he is now "fighting on".
She also admitted it is a "physical shock to the system" for their children Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11, to see Derek as his legs are "like sticks" and he has "no muscle left".
They managed to visit at Christmas but Kate and her kids, who she says have "coped brilliantly", haven't been able to physically see him in 2021.
The 'GMB' host is hoping to visit Derek again when the latest coronavirus pandemic lockdown lifts.
In her upcoming documentary 'Kate Garraway: Finding Derek' - which airs on Tuesday night (23.03.21) - viewers will see Derek say he isn't sure how to cope while Kate is chatting to him via video call.
He says: "Kate, there’s no way out. There’s no way out.
"I’ve got to the point where I just think f*** it. Just f*** it."
She asks: "As in die?"
He responds: "Yes ... I don’t know how to cope, I don’t know how to cope."
Kate then says: "You don’t know how to cope with it. OK.
"I know you feel like you’re trapped in your head and it’s terrifying. But you’re coming home, you’re coming back to your life and you will be the person, even better than you were before. You will be.
"I will find a way to make it better. I promised you that I would save you and I’m going to save you, I will find a way, but you just have to hang in there."
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