'Absolutely amazing'
Kate Garraway praises ‘amazing’ children Darcey and Billy for planting veg and building Lego while dad Derek was in coma
KATE Garraway has praised her two children for being "absolutely amazing" during their dad Derek Draper's battle with coronavirus.
PR man Derek, 52, is now free from the deadly bug but Good Morning Britain star Kate, 53, has said it has caused "extraordinary damage" to his body.
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He has spent the last 10 weeks in hospital, most of that time in a coma, and Kate has been warned that he may never recover.
In her first television interview since Derek fell so seriously ill, Kate spoke about how their children, 14-year-old Darcey and Billy, 10, have been coping.
She told GMB: "Billy and Darcey have been absolutely amazing." She added: "They have been doing so many things.
"Just before lockdown, the last weekend Derek was well, Darcey said we needed to go to the garden centre to get vegetables, she said the supermarkets are going to run out of food.
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"Without even telling me, just one day in the first couple of weeks of Derek being sick, she dug up an area, which I hadn't planned to dig up, and planted loads and loads of vegetables.
"It's fantastic, we have actually started eating them."
Kate then went on to explain how Darcey has grown radishes for her dad, but sadly added: "She said, 'I don't even like radishes. I grew these for dad and he still isn't better'.
"I said, 'I know but we can plant more and he'll be glad that we have done it."
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The star added: "She knew I was going to be speaking to you this morning so she cut my hair."
Kate explained that the nationwide school closures meant that they have not had any "normality" at all.
In order to bring her children some happiness, they have done things like playing in a paddling pool at 11pm.
She said: "Anything to find little moments of joy, so they can see that even with this going on, we can still smile and that is Derek's big thing actually."
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During the interview, Kate revealed that Billy is due to return to school on Monday but said it was a painful decision.
"When I was on GMB with you, it was always Derek who took him [to school]," she said.
"When we got the news, he's Year Six - one of those going back but not fully - he said, 'I don't want to go back before dad's better because I want dad to do it'.
"I said, 'What would dad say?' and Darcey has offered to get him some cool clothes.
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"They don't have a uniform, so she has been on Amazon - god knows what she has spent - trying to get him some cool T-shirts for Monday."
Kate said Billy is also a big Lego fan and received a 3,000-piece set from her GMB co-star Susanna Reid.
She added: "He and Derek had started the Death Star, which is a huge Lego set, and he won't let that finish until dad gets better."
The I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! star said they had also been given some bikes from a neighbour and had ridden to the park together.
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Kate explained: "It's about really trying to carry on with life when you don't know life is certain - and I know that's what a lot of people are going through.
"There are some people trying to put their life together because they have lost people and some people like me, people who are sick, and also just the uncertainty that we are all in.
"I am just trying to do what everyone else is really and trying to move forward, while every day trying to do the absolute best for Derek too."
Kate Garraway opens up about her husband Derek Draper's coronavirus battle in an emotional interview on Good Morning Britain
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