Kate Garraway’s friends are desperate for her to “slow down” after the “exhausted” presenter revealed she was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack.
The Good Morning Britain host, 56, has been juggling her demanding job with caring for her Covid-stricken husband Derek Draper, also 56.
Derek was in hospital for a year after first falling ill in March 2020 and still requires almost round-the-clock medical care. Now a source has told OK! that Kate’s close friends are desperately worried about the toll the ordeal is taking on her.
“Kate is juggling too many balls. She likes to do everything herself when it comes to caring for Derek and doesn’t want to put the pressure on anyone else,” they said.
But she has to accept that she simply can’t do everything and she really needs to take some time out.
“She’s barely sleeping so she’s exhausted and has been working on automatic mode recently.”
Our source added that although friends are “rallying around” and encouraging her to put the brakes on, it’s really up to Kate to make that decision.
“It’s at the point now where it’s not even a choice – she must slow down because it’s impacting her health,” they said. "Kate is exhausted and can’t carry on like this, she needs a break.”
Kate’s army of fans are also concerned for her health.
One posted, “Not surprised she is under so much pressure. Sending warm wishes.”
Another fan said, “Good God Kate, you need to slow down!”
Devoted Kate, who shares teenagers Darcey, 17 and Billy, 14, with Derek, made the candid admission about her health emergency in her new book The Strength Of Love.
She described how she was dramatically rushed to hospital from the GMB studio after experiencing “excruciating” chest pains, vomiting and being unable to move her arm.
“Only weeks earlier, Derek had been blue-lighted back to hospital with another life-threatening development,” she recalled. “Again, I’d had the fear of losing him – the crisis just went on and on. The pain in my chest was back. It had never really gone away, just been pushed aside, smothered by my need to get on with things. But now it was overwhelming and I couldn’t ignore it.”
While tests confirmed she wasn’t having a heart attack, a doctor told her it was a “warning”.
Kate has previously admitted, “My friends worry that I can’t spend my life forever attached to whether Derek is having a good or bad day, for my own sanity.”
The former I’m A Celebrity campmate has been open about Derek’s health since he suffered serious complications including kidney and heart failure as the Covid infection ravaged his organs.
Kate described his initial stay in hospital as “months and months of horror, of live-or-die phone calls”.
In mid 2021, the former political lobbyist was well enough to return to their north London home after the family spent thousands of pounds adapting it for his needs, but has been readmitted to hospital numerous times.
When Kate collected her MBE for her services to broadcasting, journalism and charity from the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle in July, she offered a glimpse into her new reality, telling fans the “extraordinary day” came in the same week that “started with Derek in hospital and ended with Derek in hospital”.
Last week, more than three years since the family’s ordeal began, Kate told a newspaper that her husband of 18 years was “terribly, terribly depressed”, and the family still can’t assume his condition is “safe”.
On top of pouring her energies into taking care of Derek and their kids, Kate has become an advocate for other families suffering from the devastating fall-out of Covid.
In her first book sharing Derek’s story, The Power Of Hope, she described her vow to never give up, while in her Finding Derek documentary she revealed the first, post-Covid, word Derek mouthed, “Pain.”
Her latest book includes frank admissions from Kate about the “exhausting and demoralising” battle of advocating for and caring for Derek.
“I want to do it, it makes me feel closer to him,” she wrote, adding, “It was what I prayed to be able to do during those endless terrible days when him being home seemed too much to hope for, when his life could have been snatched away at any second.”
She also described the physical strain of lifting Derek, who needs constant repositioning in bed, and using a manual hoist to get him out of bed for a “full wash and to change his sheets”.
While her GMB filming and her weekday Smooth Radio show have proved a welcome distraction for Kate, our source said, it adds to the time pressures on her.
In 2021, Kate took over the popular ITV show Life Stories from Piers Morgan, interviewing the likes of Anton Du Beke and Nadiya Hussain.
“She’s always wanted her own show and now she has Life Stories and is really busy with work, but it’s come at a price,” our source said. “It’s just work, work, work and then she rushes to Derek, who seems to make improvements only to suffer setbacks once more. Kate always puts herself last and rarely gets time away.
“For the sake of her family and for Derek, she needs to allow herself some time to rest and recuperate too.”
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