Kate Garraway is still grappling with the financial toll of Derek Draper's care - and now she's been hit by a fresh blow.
The GMB presenter has bravely opened up about her money struggles, admitting she'd fallen into debt after forking out £16,000 a month for Derek to get the help and support he needed. Her late husband needed around-the-clock treatment following his heart attack and relied on Kate for much of his care.
Despite the star's lucrative salary at ITV, the cost of care totalled more than her monthly pay cheque, and she was still left to pay off the mortgage and bills.
Now Kate, 57, is reportedly facing a fresh blow as she's been hit with a £150,000 bill as a result of closing her late husband's business, Asta Aspera. Kate has been told to cough up a £32,000 flat fee on top of 40 per cent of assets recovered from the psychotherapeutic business, The Sun reports. Derek's firm was shut down with £184,096.96 of debt.
She is also said to be facing a £112,836 bill from a director's loan taken out by Derek, who passed away in January. The star has now called in for financial help from specialists. A source close to Kate recently told the Mirror that she has engaged London financial experts Hacker Young to handle discussions with HMRC. They said: "Kate has made no secret of her financial issues which include Derek's medical care bills and the collapse of his company. She is now getting the help she needs to help with the tax bill."
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Following the torment of losing her husband, the presenter has been left with a staggering £1.5million in debt due to the cost of Derek's care and dues to the taxman.
Derek needed around-the-clock care after his heart attack
Kate is now seeking specialist support for her financial struggles (Dave Benett/Getty Images)Earlier this month, Kate admitted she has been forced to withdraw cash from her pension to resolve her crippling debt. Opening up about her woes on GMB, she told a struggling guest, who has had to pay £15,000 for their own private healthcare: "You need every penny of that pension. I'm doing something similar myself. 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.
"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 travelling miles, paying their own transport to go and help somebody for minimum wage. I’m somebody that is very well paid and so I just feel a shame that I couldn't make it work."
Heartbreakingly, Kate revealed she was already at her limit in a documentary released earlier this year. Two months after Derek died, aged 56, Kate candidly discussed her money woes in the ITV documentary Kate Garraway: Derek's Story. Here, the I'm A Celeb! alum revealed how difficult life was caring for Derek after he contracted Covid 19 and how his carers tried to aid his recovery with techniques like hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
She said at the time: "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."
Turning to Kate, documentary director Lucy Wilcox responded by saying viewers would be 'surprised' to hear her talk of financial ruin. She said people will assume she's "loaded", but. Kate replied: "Listen, I'm not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it's not enough."
"If it is like this for me, what is it like for everybody else? Time and time again the system tells us that Derek isn't sick enough, doesn't have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care," she explained, highlighting that she won't be alone.
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"I've appealed but that still hasn't been processed two-and-a-half, three years later. If this is what it's like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else? Something has to be done, or the whole service, the people working in it, everything is going to break.
"Derek's care, the basic needs, not including any therapy, which I am happy to pay on top, is nearly £4,000 a week. How can I afford that? How can anybody afford £16,000 a month? Please, God, there could be another 40 years of this." She continued: "We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work is unbelievably complicated and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need.
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"Why is it that people who get sick and it's no longer considered the right thing for them to be in hospital... why does coming home feel like falling off a cliff?" So how much does Kate earn and what is her estimated net worth?
The mum-of-two has been presenting ITV’s flagship breakfast show Good Morning Britain for nearly a decade. Due to Kate's years of service and popularity among viewers, she has secured herself a strong salary. It is estimated that she earns £544,000 annually, mostly coming from the broadcaster.
It's not her only source of income, as she also has her own show on Smooth Radio. As a result, Kate once had an estimated net worth of £1.5million, according to multiple sources online. However, it is not know how much of that has been eroded by the time she was forced to take off to care diligently for her husband and children, as well as the cash she has spent on care.
A version of this story was first published on March 26, 2024.
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