Kate Garraway says she decided to feature footage of Derek Draper in his hospital bed in her new documentary because he would want his story to be told.
The former political adviser, 53, remains in hospital after being admitted with coronavirus symptoms in March last year.
A new ITV documentary features footage of Garraway and her children as well as Draper in hospital.
Garraway, 53, told Good Morning Britain that it showed Draper responding to his family.
The “hours of nothingness, of blank staring” felt “too personal”, she said.
‘Derek, I miss you!’
Follow Kate Garraway’s emotional journey as her husband Derek recovers from the effects of Covid in a new documentary.
Watch Kate Garraway: Finding Derek Tuesday 9pm @itv. pic.twitter.com/Pio9URJy7d
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 18, 2021
“The moments that you see are the moments when he is getting more consciousness and he can react,” the presenter said.
“Derek has devoted his life to mental health and good mental health. He’s a psychotherapist and a psychologist. So I feel like, that he would want his journey to be told.”
She said her husband’s communication had “regressed a little” since filming the documentary, but “he’s even got his accent back”.
‘There’s a moment that is tough for people to watch and that’s the moment he felt he can’t go on.’
Kate says the reason she included such a difficult moment in Derek’s journey is because the fights he was going through is so important and relatable.
Watch the doc tonight @ITV. pic.twitter.com/SbyVYqVj02
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 23, 2021
Garraway added: “I am very aware that I am very lucky, because Derek is still here. And we have got the chance to battle on.”
And she said: “There are moments in the documentary where I think people who know Derek, will know that he is there.
“And for such a long time” that was “the horror. Is he still there, is he trapped inside himself? Or is he gone?” she said.
She also said she has no plans to leave Good Morning Britain.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily (Ben) Shephard,” she told her co-host. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I don’t think I ever really saw it as giving up work,” Garraway said about comments she makes in the documentary about reshaping her future.
Derek Draper (Tim Ireland/PA)
In the ITV documentary Finding Derek, Garraway is seen renovating the ground floor of their family home so it is wheelchair accessible ahead of his possible return.
The documentary details their family’s experience during his illness and sees Garraway speaking to people suffering long Covid, NHS staff and other experts.
One scene sees her recall being told by Draper’s doctors that he was the most seriously ill person they had seen who remained alive.
Kate Garraway Finding Derek airs on Tuesday at 9pm on ITV.
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