Good Morning Britain’s Kate Garraway has ‘never felt like thumping Piers Morgan’
Although she admits 'others' may do
This week TV Magazine gets to know Kate Garraway…
I once thought I was having a heart attack. I had this searing pain, it started on a Thursday and by Monday morning I couldn’t breathe.
The doctor told me to go to A&E, and you immediately start feeling clammy and sweaty; you suddenly get all the symptoms of a heart attack. But I had just torn a cartilage in my ribcage. I’d lifted something that was too heavy. That started a whole new chain of things and I ended up writing a book about it [The Joy Of Big Knickers]. I was heading towards 50 and I thought: ‘If I can’t even move a few boxes without scaring myself to death, I’ve got to have a total mind, body and health makeover.’
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time in A&E this year. My daughter [Darcey, 11] broke her thumb joint, then my son [Billy, seven] had these really bad cramps. Then my daughter went flying from her roller skates and bashed her knee. And then my poor husband Derek, right in the middle of the two-week sex experiment [Kate and Derek had agreed to have sex every day for a fortnight], slipped and broke five bones in his foot and ended up in a wheelchair. I’m going to nominate the staff at the A&E at Whittington Hospital in north London for Good Morning Britain’s Health Star Awards. They’re all extraordinary.
You’ve got to get your head right about ageing. Taking care of diet and exercise and facing your fears about growing older will lead you into a happier place emotionally and mentally. You feel like you have a choice.
My worst habit is my untidiness. It bewilders my family, the degree to which I can create absolute chaos around me. Derek has banned me from having anything next to our bed apart from a book, reading glasses and face cream. I just put a bag down and somehow there’s so much spillage, I make it look chaotic. My mum once went into my bedroom when I was a teenager and saw something like a furry ball. She touched it and it exploded – it was a peach covered in spores. Because I’m now a mother, I have to be vaguely hygienic so I’m cleaner, but I’m no tidier.
My perfect Saturday would start with a lie-in, because I’m always getting up so early for Good Morning Britain. A cup of tea and telly in bed, that’s a real treat. Then going out to see friends or family for lunch, or having them over, then a nice walk in a park, so you come home feeling like you’ve had some exercise. And finally snuggling up and having a chilled evening at home.
I was deeply in love with David Soul from Starsky & Hutch when I was 11 or 12. I used to borrow my mum’s peach nighty and put some lipstick on and say I was going on a date with him. I made this little purse and would carry a picture of him in it and say he was my boyfriend.
We’ll see what 50 feels like. We’re going to have a big party – it’s Derek’s 50th in August so we’ll have a joint one in June [Kate’s birthday is in May]. And then we’ll go away for my actual birthday. I’m a lot happier about turning 50 than I was when I turned 49.
I’ve never felt like thumping Piers Morgan. Others may do, but not me. He’s exhilarating to be around.
I’d love to have [US President] Donald Trump round for dinner because he’d be fascinating. It would be so entertaining. But maybe I should have the Dalai Lama there to offset any potential bad karma. And someone like Peter Kay, so we could have a good laugh.
Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan is mine and Derek’s song. When we were dating and had our first row, Derek made a recording of it on a CD and posted it through my letterbox with a long ‘sorry’ note. It was one of those notes where they’re saying sorry but also explaining how it was your fault!
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