Kate Garraway in 'strange bubble of grief' after Derek Draper's heartbreaking death, says Ben Shephard

Kate's husband Derek sadly passed away last week.

Kate Garraway has told her GMB co-host Ben Shephard the "clocks have stopped" since her husband Derek Draper sadly passed away last week.

Ben made his first appearance on Good Morning Britain today since Derek's heartbreaking death last Friday. The 56-year-old fell ill due to the complications of contracting coronavirus back in March 2020 and at the end of last year, he suffered a heart attack.

As Ben opened the show, he spoke of how "extraordinary" the last week has been, explaining that he had been in touch with Kate and is supporting her through this tragic time.

The GMB host said that he spoke to his co star just last night and explained she had been struggling with her grief but is been grateful for all the messages of support, writes The Mirror.

He told viewers: "It's been extraordinary. It's the first time I've been on sadly since we heard of Derek's passing last Friday. I just thought it would be alright to take a moment firstly on Kate's behalf - I spoke to Kate last night - she again reiterated what she said on Monday, which is a huge, huge thank you to everyone that has sent her and the family a message."

"I've been stopped by people in the street, I was stopped by a woman who sadly lost her father that day who had been suffering for a long time with dementia and [she] said my dad has been ill for the same period as Derek has and we've watched Kate and her family and the courage they've shown through the last four years.

"He had passed away not long after Derek had and she said it's been such a power of strength to see [Kate] and watch her and keep going. Stories like that and messages like that, it's been so overwhelming. Kate said she can't explain how important that has been for her for the last four years."

Ben then gave an update on Kate saying she was in "her own numbness of grief" but was now in the "next stage" since Derek's passing.

"She said she's sort of in a strange bubble of her own numbness of grief. Her, Billy and Darcey are hunkering down together. Her amazing mum and dad are just remarkable. She's got all the right people around her. She wanted everybody to know she will be back as soon as she can. They are in the next stages of working out what happens; there's a lot of admin to do when you lose someone. In that brilliant way yesterday, she said, I have to go out to go and register the death."

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"She told Darcey, 'I'm going to have to go out the house', and Darcey said, 'I know this is going to be really hard but can I make one suggestion?' She says, 'course you can darling'. And then Darcey said, 'can you take the Christmas jumper off and can you brush your hair?'

Ben added: "She said to me the clocks stopped for us just before Christmas when Derek had that heart attack and she's just starting to come out of that. We all know that Kate in the run up to Christmas wears a new Christmas jumper every day, she supports the charity. And suddenly she realises yesterday that everything has been frozen in time since then. So now it's about the next part of his journey."

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