Kate Garraway opened up about the shocking first moment she saw her husband Derek Draper at the hospital when he initially contracted the coronavirus.
She recalled being hit by a "white ball of shock" when she first saw an "unrecognisable" Derek in his hospital bed.
He was connected to a ventilator for months and was in a medically-induced coma, resulting in extreme weight loss.
The 53-year-old dad had been the UK's longest-running in-patients for Covid-19 after falling ill in March 2020.
Kate explained: "Even now it remains hard to describe how I felt when I saw him. It was like a white ball of shock so bright you want to put your hand up to your eyes to protect them.
"My husband was unrecognisable. Legs like sticks, thinner than I'd thought his previously big frame could make possible. His arms too – how could muscle, flesh and fat become so small? Even his bones should be bigger than that, surely?"
Coronavirus left him with several health problems, including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs.
She continued in her memoir The Power of Hope: "His lungs heaved, mechanically wrenching in and out in an unnatural, desperate way. His eyes stared straight up as he lay on the bed, which I was grateful for as I didn't want him to see my reaction."
Despite everything the family has been through, Kate recently told Times Radio that there is still hope for the future.
"It's just a whole new chapter that we're starting on now, which is him at home and seeing how he can recover, seeing how he can recover and where he can go," Kate said. "He is definitely still Derek. I believe he will improve.
"I think we've all been changed by what we've been through actually. The whole country has been changed by what we've been through."
The Good Morning Britain presenter added: "So I don't think he'll be exactly the same person again, I don't think I will be actually or any of us will be. I could drive myself mad thinking what might have been."
"I don't think you will be either. I think we've all been so affected by the pandemic generally."
