Kate Garraway ‘feels ashamed’ as she’s forced to withdraw pension to pay bills after Derek’s death

ITV star Kate Garraway has admitted that she feels ashamed among money woes. The presenter has been left in debt following the lengthy healthy battle of her late husband, Derek Draper.

He died earlier this year after suffering complications after contracting Covid-19. And Kate, 57, was discussing health on Good Morning Britain this morning (May 6).

Lindy Kirk told Kate, 57, about her health order which left her with no other option but to pay thousands. She explained that she was in excruciating pain and confined to a wheelchair when she was told she had to wait 18 months for an operation that could change her life, The Mirror reports.

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She resorted to paying £15,000 to go private and Kate empathized. She told Lindy: “You need every penny of that pension. I’m doing something similar myself.” The TV star then revealed she’s had to withdraw from her pension to pay for her late husband’s medical bills.

Kate said: “I’ve just had to withdraw the bit you can tax-free for my pension to pay belated bills for my husband that passed away.”

She then turned to Dr Amir Khan and said: “People are having to do the things which aren’t what they saved for and some people don’t have any savings at all.”

Kate was tasked with paying for his Derek’s medical bills after he died ages 56. They amounted to a whopping £16k a month for his basic care and mobility therapy.

The mother-of-two said she was “ashamed” of her debt, particularly as her lucrative job didn’t help her to make ends meet. She said: “I am ashamed of the fact that I am in debt because I have an incredible job that I love, that’s very well paid.

“I’m not a carer traveling thousands, paying their own transportation to go and help someone for minimum wage. I’m someone that is very well paid and so I just feel a shame that I couldn’t make it work.”

In the documentary ‘Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story’ which was filmed when Derek was alive, Kate said: “Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point.

“I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.”