Kate Garraway has been extremely open about her financial worries in recent years due to the significant costs she incurred while caring for her late husband, Derek Draper
Kate Garraway has been hit with mounting debts in recent years. The Good Morning Britain anchor, 58, who is to star on BBC’s Celebrity The Traitors, has been hit with staggering bills after being dealt multiple financial blows due to caring for her husband Derek Draper, who died in January 2024.
Earlier this year, Kate’s media firm reported losses of almost £300,000 in the previous year. She launched Praespero 100 to look after all of her earnings from media-related work. Documents filed with Companies House disclosed it owed £288,122 for 2024. In the previous year, it was £165,011 in the red, down from a £36,888 surplus in 2022.
The firm is described as being in the business of “radio broadcasting, television programming and broadcasting activities, management consultancy activities other than financial management”. She had previously racked up debts of £800,000 due to spending £4,000 a week caring for Derek after the former lobbyist contracted Coronavirus..
Kate was also slapped with a tax bill of £716,000 after closing down their joint psychotherapy company, Astra Aspera Ltd with £183,096 worth of debt. Earlier this year, Kate was forced to sell off one of her London homes in order to pay off her debts.
The home is said to have sold for a whopping £1.5 million, with the three-bedroomed townhouse having been “heavily mortgaged”. A source at the time told The Sun: “Kate takes paying off the debts very seriously and she’s always said she’d go to any lengths to achieve that.
“This is just part of that commitment, even if it does mean she’s had to lose the flat which she actually purchased years ago before meeting Derek and before they bought a family home together. Like many people, she was keeping it as a financial safety net which she thought she wouldn’t have to use so soon.”
She also had to explore her pension funds in order to cover her bills. Hacker Young, a London firm, is believed to now be assisting her with her financial affairs. Speaking in a passionate plea on Good Morning Britain earlier this year, Kate told Wes Streeting how she was in “unpayable debt”.
She told Mr Streeting: “I’m going to be honest. In my mind, I’m thinking about the situation with Derek. It actually happens to be the anniversary of his death, one-year anniversary of his death, today, which is a day only relevant to me, but over the last few weeks, the family and I have been talking about the challenges we faced this time last year.
“And one of the overriding ones until he went back into intensive care before he passed away, was dealing with the funding of care. At the time of his death, there were two appeals that hadn’t been heard for funding.
“It kept on getting pushed back and pushed back. In the meantime, and I’m lucky I’ve got an incredible job which is well paid, I was having to fund the situation. Now I’ve got excessive unpayable debt because of it, and if I’m in that position, what else are people going to be? People can’t afford four more years of this.”
The Celebrity Traitors starts at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
