Kate Garraway says she was wrongly told husband Derek Draper ‘may have died’ of Covid-19

Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Kate Garraway has revealed that she was incorrectly told her husband “may have died” when he was first hospitalised with coronavirus.

Derek Draper, 53, contracted Covid-19 in March 2020, and was placed in a medically-induced coma.

The illness has left Draper, who is now free of Covid, with a hole in his heart, diabetic and in need of kidney dialysis after complications with his pancreas.

Speaking to The Times, Good Morning Britain host Garraway, who has been married to Draper for 16 years, says she was told: “He may have died. Somebody will call you back.”

Garraway, 53, then had to endure 24 hours of waiting by the phone and frantically trying to find out what was going on.

Derek Draper and Kate Garraway have been married for 16 years (PA)

Eventually, the hospital called back to say they had made a mistake

“It turned out that somebody had died who had a similar name to his,” Garraway said.

The broadcaster also remembered being told Draper “could make a reasonable recovery”, a phrase she says she found “chilling”.

“I said, ‘OK, what does a reasonable recovery look like?’ And they said, ‘Being able to hold a hairbrush.’”

Read more: Piers Morgan rules out Good Morning Britain return as petitions to reinstate him reach nearly 200,000

The story of Draper’s illness will be told in a new ITV documentary, titled Finding Derek, which will air on 23 March.