A tearful Kate Garraway has revealed her daughter’s final words to her father Derek Draper before he died – and that the 17-year-old asked to carry his coffin at the funeral.
In her first interview since laying her husband to rest three days ago, the 56-year-old TV star spoke of her “outpouring of love for everyone that has supported me” during an appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“It’s just amazing. It feels like my emotions are at 110%,” she said.
Image: Kate Garraway at the funeral with her daughter Darcey (left) and son Billy (right). Pic: PA
She opened up to her co-presenters Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid – telling them she was told Draper had 24 hours to live a month before he eventually died.
Draper, a former political adviser and psychotherapist, died last month at the age of 56.
He was said to be one of the UK’s longest-suffering COVID patients after catching the disease in March 2020 and spending 13 months in hospital.
Speaking from her home via videolink on Monday, an emotional Garraway also told of the huge strength her daughter Darcey showed in the hours before Draper’s death.
The teenager helped carry her dad’s coffin at his funeral on Friday, which was attended by a host of politicians and celebrities.
Garraway said both the children spent time with their father on their own, adding: “Darcey said ‘If you can’t do this, we will be okay’ and I thought that was extraordinarily brave.”
Advertisement
On her daughter’s role as a pallbearer at the service, she said: “She insisted on doing it and I thought it was a beautiful thing.”
Image: Darcey, 17, carried the coffin at her father’s funeral on Friday. Pic: PA
‘Stop the clock moment’
Addressing how it felt when she was told Draper would not survive a serious downturn in his health, she said: “It was one of those ‘stop the clock’ moments, where you want the world to stop.”
Asked how she managed to keep it together while caring for her husband for four years, she said: “I’m not sure I did it very well. I think I relied on everybody else, like we all do.
“I think I’ve got a massive debt to so many people and not least to Derek, actually, because his spirit and fight to keep going, never once did he say ‘I don’t want to try. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that.’
“Nor have the children. The children have been extraordinary throughout.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:36
Mourners arrive at Derek Draper’s funeral
‘Looking forward to a blow dry’
She said son Billy, 14, had returned to school today – and confirmed she will return to GMB on Thursday.
“I am looking forward to coming into the world and connecting with everyone again,” she said.
“Thank you for having me back but have a little patience, I might be a bit rusty.”
“I’m going to be looking forward to a blow dry,” she joked.
“I’m going to be finding fake eyelashes. I’m going to be very much looking forward to applying fake tan.
“Don’t worry, I will be a little bit more respectable by Thursday.
“I’ll be doing a lot of homework between now and then because I feel like I’ve been in a very small bubble.”
Image: Kate Garraway with Derek Draper in 2007. Pic: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock
‘New life starts now’
Of Darcey and Billy, she added: “For their grieving, we are in the foothills, we know there is a long way to go.”
However, she said she is looking to the future, adding: “A new life starts now. I don’t quite know how it’s gonna be. But grief isn’t containable in a day or a month or a year.
“I think some people say: why are you going back to work? Well, everybody does have to, don’t they? Life has to start.”
Garraway added she has received “extraordinary” messages of condolence from unexpected places.
“I had the most beautiful letter from David and Victoria Beckham – handwritten, very good handwriting… that was Darcey’s observation,” she said.
“And from the Royal Family – Catherine and William sent a beautiful letter, and I know Catherine has been in hospital herself.
“Even the King, because there is somebody who knows about grief, that anticipatory grief where you know something has a risk of happening and how different it is when it does happen.”
Scientists are turning detective to work out what British dolphins are up to beneath the waves – by using forensic-style DNA techniques on their poo.
Conservationists have been studying the 250 or so bottlenose dolphins living in Cardigan Bay, west Wales, over many decades.
Up to now, they have only been able to observe the dolphins as they surface to breathe or play, identifying the animals from the unique marks on their dorsal fins to establish which animals were hanging out together and where.
Image: Dolphins in Cardigan Bay. Pic: Sarah Perry/WTSWW
But now for the first time scientists are using DNA excreted by the dolphins in their poo to build a more complete picture of their lives.
It allows them to identify the sex of individuals and how they are related to other animals. Signficantly, it also shows what the dolphins have been eating.
Image: Dolphin poo. Pic: Sarah Perry/WTSWW
Dr Sarah Perry, marine conservation manager at The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said: “In order to be able to conserve them, we need to know why they’re here and a big a missing part of that is, what they’re feeding on.
“Is that changing at different times of the year? Are certain species of fish more important to them early on in the year, in the spring, and the summer months, and then does that change over the autumn and winter months?
“Are certain species important for younger animals? We don’t know that, so that kind of information, we need to find out.”
Image: Dr Sarah Perry
Catching dolphin poo involves a large element of luck.
The animals occasionally eject a cloud of waste material as they swim.
But it quickly sinks, so the scientists’ boat needs to be close enough for them to scoop it out of the sea with a fine-meshed net.
A sample is then sent to a lab at the University of Aberystwyth, where DNA is extracted for analysis.
Results so far suggest the dolphins are having to adapt to a change in fish species as the water warms.
Image: Dr Niall McKeown
Dr Niall McKeown, a marine biologist at the university, said: “We are seeing large amounts of sardine, sprat, and anchovy.
“This is quite interesting because these are species that are known to have increased in abundance in Welsh waters in recent years in response, we believe, to climate change.”
Image: Dr Niall analyses a sample
Scientists unsure why dolphin numbers are falling
But questions remain about the dolphins.
The number in Cardigan Bay seems to be falling, but scientists are not sure whether that’s a natural cycle or a response to other factors.
Boat noise and disturbance from some fishing activities, such as scallop dredging, could impact the animals, which rely on sound to communicate.
Dr Parry said: “How lucky are we to have such an important population of dolphins here? It’s crazy that we really don’t know that much about them.”
Sir Alan Bates has accused the government of presiding over a “quasi kangaroo court” for Post Office compensation.
Writing in The Sunday Times, the campaigner, who led a years-long effort for justice for sub-postmasters, revealed he had been given a “take it or leave it” offer that was less than half of his original claim.
“The sub-postmaster compensation schemes have been turned into quasi-kangaroo courts in which the Department for Business and Trade sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses,” he said.
“Claims are, and have been, knocked back on the basis that legally you would not be able to make them, or that the parameters of the scheme do not extend to certain items.”
More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as if money was missing from their accounts.
Many are still waiting for compensation despite the previous government saying those who had their convictions quashed were eligible for £600,000 payouts.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:36
‘It still gives me nightmares’
After the Post Office terminated his contract over a false shortfall in 2003, Sir Alan began seeking out other sub-postmasters and eventually took the Post Office to court.
More on Post Office Scandal
Related Topics:
A group litigation order (GLO) scheme was set up to achieve redress for 555 claimants who took the Post Office to the High Court between 2017 and 2019.
Sir Alan, who was portrayed by actor Toby Jones in ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, has called for an independent body to be created to deliver compensation.
He added that promises the compensation schemes would be “non-legalistic” had turned out to be “worthless”.
It is understood around 80% of postmasters in Sir Alan’s group have accepted a full and final redress, or been paid most of their offer.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:29
‘Lives were destroyed’
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson told Sky News: “We pay tribute to all the postmasters who’ve suffered from this scandal, including Sir Alan for his tireless campaign for justice, and we have quadrupled the total amount paid to postmasters since entering government.
“We recognise there will be an absence of evidence given the length of time which has passed, and we therefore aim to give the benefit of the doubt to postmasters as far as possible.
“Anyone unhappy with their offer can have their case reviewed by a panel of experts, which is independent of the government.”
Sir Keir Starmer could decide to lift the two-child benefit cap in the autumn budget, amid further pressure from Nigel Farage to appeal to traditional Labour voters.
The Reform leader will use a speech this week to commit his party to scrapping the two-child cap, as well as reinstating winter fuel payments in full.
There are now mounting suggestions an easing of the controversial benefit restriction may be unveiled when the chancellor delivers the budget later this year.
According to The Observer, Sir Keir told cabinet ministers he wanted to axe the measure – and asked the Treasury to look for ways to fund the move.
The Financial Times reported it may be done by restoring the benefit to all pensioners, with the cash needed being clawed back from the wealthy through the tax system.
The payment was taken from more than 10 million pensioners this winter after it became means-tested, and its unpopularity was a big factor in Labour’s battering at recent elections.
Before Wednesday’s PMQs, the prime minister and chancellor had insisted there would be no U-turn.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:20
Will winter fuel U-turn happen?
Many Labour MPs have called for the government to do more to help the poorest in society, amid mounting concern over the impact of wider benefit reforms.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown this week told Sky News the two-child cap was “pretty discriminatory” and could be scrapped by raising money through a tax on the gambling industry.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:22
Brown questioned over winter fuel U-turn
Mr Farage, who believes Reform UK can win the next election, will this week accuse Sir Keir of being “out of touch with working people”.
In a speech first reported by The Sunday Telegraph, he is expected to say: “It’s going to be these very same working people that will vote Reform at the next election and kick Labour out of government.”