Peter Andre reveals he’s privately supporting Kate Garraway and says husband Derek’s coronavirus battle news ‘killed me’
PETER Andre revealed that Kate Garraway’s heartbreaking news about her husband’s battle with coronavirus “killed me”.
Good Morning Britain presenter Kate, 53, has kept fans updated on her husband Derek Draper‘s progress after he contracted the deadly bug in March and was put into an induced coma.
During a chat with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain, Kate explained that their two kids, Darcey, 14 and Billy, 10, have “lost their dad”.
And that comment really hit home for 47-year-old Pete, who has four children.
He told the : “She’s such a nice person… the bit that got me with her was the day when she turned around and said, ‘My kids have effectively lost their father’, that killed me when she said that, because of course I can understand that feeling as a dad.”
“I just pray that everything is going to be OK, I really do.
“It just highlights that not everyone is safe and some people who thought there was no virus, there are all sorts of things going on.
“It’s very real.”
Pete also explained that he’s privately supporting Kate through this tough time.
He added: “I’ve known Kate for years, she and I had good old chats before she went into the jungle because she wanted to know to what to expect.
“We’ve actually been in private contact me and her for a while, my thoughts are with her so much and her family.”
On March 30, Derek was rushed to hospital after testing positive for coronavirus and has been there ever since.
In Mid April he was admitted to intensive care and entered a coma as his condition deteriorated, where he was still unresponsive.
Two months on, Kate told fans on GMB that Derek was “very very sick” but “Covid free“, and was told they were not sure if “he will recover”.
Derek has now woken from the coma and she recently wished him “good morning” as she told GMB viewers that he would be watching in hospital.
The mum-of-two has kept strong throughout this tough time and just last week she admitted she has received “abuse” about “laughing and joking” on Good Morning Britain while Derek remains in hospital.
The comments hit home a lot harder for Pete, not only because he’s close pals with Kate, but also because his wife Emily, 30, suffered from the virus very early on in the pandemic.
The doctor secretly battled the virus for two weeks in March and took the decision to self-isolate after being struck down by ‘strange’ symptoms.
Emily had been working on the NHS frontline since the pandemic started but within weeks started to feel “very unwell” with a headache, sore throat and aching limbs – she also lost her ability to taste and smell.
She took a government approved test at her hospital in Surrey in June, which came back positive and revealed she now has the coronavirus antibodies.
Pete told us: “It was a really scary time. Emily became ill when the cases were soaring, nobody knew the symptoms, not all doctors were wearing masks and Emily was very exposed to it.
“She said she thought she could have it as her symptoms were so unique.
“She lost all taste – now we know that’s one of the key symptoms – but they didn’t know that when Emily felt sick.
“She couldn’t taste or smell anything, imagine you’ve got a really bad flu, and she had aches and the sore throat.
“It was a really worrying time because obviously the kids were asking ‘where’s mummy,’ but I couldn’t tell them – I was too petrified of them getting it.”