Earlier today (December 24) on Good Morning Britain (GMB) Kate Garraway opened up to her co-hosts Ranvir Singh and Ed Balls about her first Christmas without husband Derek Draper.

Derek who was a former lobbyist and political adviser, died in January aged 56 after suffering long-lasting damage to his organs from coronavirus.

On Tuesday’s GMB programme, Kate spoke about how this Christmas will be a “tough one” for their family.

Kate Garraway opens up about first Christmas without Derek on GMB

The ITV presenter said: “I think this one will be particularly hard, I’m lucky I’ve got family around me.”

Kate added: “But I think you do feel grief because that’s the point where you have the memories of previous years.

“We were lucky enough to still have him [Derek] over the last four or five years even though there were times when he was very ill.”

Kate recalled how this time last year Derek was in intensive care and she did “fear” for the worst but their two children didn’t and were still “very hopeful”.

“Yeah, it’s a tough one this year,” she continued.

“I think anyone experiencing grief, it does hit you when you feel something which is full of tradition, where you have memories, it comes back.

“I’m thinking about everybody else, who’s feeling it this time.”

Speaking about her plans for New Year, Kate said she “isn’t planning on anything”.

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She added: “I think it will just be a little moment of thought, I think we’ll all probably go to the grave and have a little bit of time and welcome the New Year.”

This year, Kate won her third National Television Award (NTA) in the best authored documentary category for a film which followed the final year before her husband died.

It followed on from two other programmes about Derek’s battle with covid and her struggles navigating the care system, which picked up NTA gongs in the category in 2021 and 2022.