Kate Garraway’s new anguish as stricken Derek’s firm goes bust
KATE GARRAWAY and her Covidhit husband Derek Draper have suffered a new blow with the business they run together going bust.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Ms Garraway was determined to save the former Labour Party spin doctor’s psychotherapy company, Astra Aspera Limited, after he was struck down by the virus.
But the Good Morning Britain presenter has lost her battle and will announce in the coming days that the firm is to fold.
Friends say the rising costs of caring for Mr Draper left no other option, prompting more agony for the family, who have endured two years of heartache since he was ravaged by the illness.
Sources suggest that the business could face bankruptcy.
One friend told the MoS: ‘Astra Aspera was primarily Derek’s company, he was the director. Kate was made director last February so that she could attempt to keep it going.
‘Kate has done her very best to do that while Derek has been incredibly ill. However, he has been unable to work, his revenue has stopped entirely and is unlikely to return in the near future.
‘Kate has other jobs on GMB and Smooth Radio, but with her massively increased costs it wasn’t possible to keep the company going, so has to be folded.’
Ms Garraway, 54, had kept her financial worries a secret despite making two emotionally charged documentaries about life with her husband, including one last month called Caring For Derek.
She recently became the host of ITV’s Life Stories while also caring for the couple’s children Darcey, 15, and William, 12. But she also
has to fund the round-the-clock care for her husband, 54, whom she married in 2005.
She revealed last month that she had accompanied him to Mexico for a medical assessment by a US doctor who may be able to reverse the damage Covid did to his body.
They hired a specialist nurse to care for Mr Draper on the 16-hour flight. He will return this month for a 28-day stay so doctors can monitor his brain, liver and lungs.
Last year, Ms Garraway said: ‘Covid has devastated him. His digestive system, his liver, his heart, his nervous system. We’re pretty sure the inflammation did pass through his brain. He is in a terrible state. But, look, he’s alive.’
A friend said: ‘The strain on Kate is immense – she is one amazing woman and she holds it together.
She will do anything to get Derek better. Nobody knows how she is doing this, it feels like one thing after another at the moment.’
Ms Garraway was devastated when Mr Draper was hospitalised in March 2020 and became so ill he had to be placed in a medically induced coma for months. She and his doctors feared he wouldn’t survive, but he rallied and returned to their London home in April.
He was pictured out for the first time last December during a trip to a pantomime in Richmond, SouthWest London, with his family.