Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, once one of morning TV’s favourite duos, ended their partnership on earlier this year.
Ben left the ITV show after a decade to join Cat Deeley as a presenter on This Morning, following and Holly Willoughby’s departures.
It appears that Kate is still adjusting to Ben’s absence from the breakfast show. On Friday’s edition, which she co-hosted with Adil Ray, she playfully jabbed at her former co-star.
During a segment discussing a ‘cat crisis’ due to increasing pet abandonment, Kate expressed her fondness for kittens at an RSPCA centre. Adil suggested she adopt some, proposing she name them after her GMB colleagues.
“I’m going with Sean, that’s it, sorted,” Kate responded, glancing at news presenter Sean Fletcher. As Adil continued listing names, including Ben’s, Kate quickly retorted, “Not Ben,” waving her arms, reports .
Kate Garraway hosted GMB on Friday (Image: ITV)
“He’s out now, he’s out! ” Adil then suggested, “Get a tortoise, call him Ben and leave him outside.”
Ben was moved to tears on his last day at the GMB studio in February when Kate and other co-stars surprised him.
On-air, Kate delivered a heartfelt message to Ben, saying: “I won’t say too much because you will make me cry. You’re an incredible person, an incredible friend, you’re an incredible broadcaster and anyone who works with you loves you. I’m going to miss you, I won’t say anymore, but we know that you’re going to be fantastic and we all know we are all still going to be in your lives as friends.”
Fighting back emotions, Ben gave his farewell statement as the show wrapped up. Before the credits rolled, he stated: “The alarm going off has never been anything I’ve enjoyed but what I have known is as soon as I get in here I’m going to be surrounded by brilliant, gorgeous, talented, challenging, chaotic, annoying, fabulous people that make me better at what I do.”
Kate with Ben on the set of Good Morning britain before his departure (Image: benshephardofficial/Instagram)
Understanding the value of teamwork, he continued, “It’s not lost on me that I wouldn’t be able to do it if you lot weren’t amazing and hadn’t been such fabulous friends and brilliant colleagues. There’s an extended family here at GMB, it’s not just us, we just get to do the glorious bit, but the team behind the cameras thank you to all of them, and thank you to the viewers as well for trusting me to wake you up in the morning with this amazing team.”
Ben concluded with a note on his next steps: “I can only cope with this, and I know I’m going over a bit because I’m not going far and these guys are going to do an incredible job, and I’m going to get a lie in.”
GMB is on ITV1 weekdays at 6am and on ITVX