Kate Garraway has been open about her financial struggles (Image: Getty)
The financial struggles of presenter were laid bare after she revealed the staggering costs of her late husband Derek Draper’s care.
In the final part of her emotional ITV documentary, the mother-of-two disclosed that she was shelling out £16,000 every month for Derek’s ongoing treatment, plunging her into significant debt.
This colossal sum reportedly exceeds her monthly earnings at ITV, and she still had to cover everyday expenses such as the and other bills.
In January 2024, Kate tragically announced that after a long battle with . The former Labour lobbyist from Chorley suffered a severe heart attack in December, from which he never recovered.
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Kate cared for Derek Draper up until his death (Image: ITV)
The final year of Derek’s life was chronicled in Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story. The documentary shed light on Derek’s health battles following his contraction of the virus in March 2020.
Derek endured a painful and debilitating decline after becoming one of the first people in the UK to contract
The psychotherapist spent 98 days in a coma, paralysed, intubated and unable to communicate.
After his discharge from hospital in 2021, Kate cared for him at home before he tragically died three years later, leaving her as a single parent to their two children, Darcey, 18, and Billy, 15.
Kate came under huge financial strain as she revealed Derek’s medical costs left her with debts between £500,000 and £800,000.
In the heart-rending documentary, Kate said: “Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a , before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point.”
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Derek’s care left Kate left with debts between £500,000 and £800,000 (Image: ITV)
She continued: “I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.”
Kate clarified her financial reality, adding: “Listen, I’m not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it’s not enough.”
At the time, Kate expressed her distress over the system’s shortcomings, saying: “If it is like this for me, what is it like for everybody else? Time and time again the system tells us that Derek isn’t sick enough, doesn’t have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care.
“I’ve appealed but that still hasn’t been processed two-and-a-half, three years later. If this is what it’s like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else? Something has to be done, or the entire service, the people working in it, everything is going to break.”
Kate has an estimated net worth of £1.5million (Image: Getty)
“Derek’s care, the basic needs, not including any therapy, which I am happy to pay on top, is nearly £4,000 a week. How can I afford that? How can anybody afford £16,000 a month? Please, God, there could be another 40 years of this.”
She further pointed out: “We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work is unbelievably complicated and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need.
“Why is it that people who get sick and it’s no longer considered the right thing for them to be in hospital… why does coming home feel like falling off a cliff?”
Kate has been a presenter on Good Morning Britain for over a decade and also hosts her own show on Smooth Radio, boosting her income.
reported that she earns an estimated £544,000 from ITV, and has a net worth of around £1.5 million.