“Amazed” by his humility, Kate said: “One of the first things he said was: ‘I’m so sorry for your loss’ to me, about the passing of Derek, my husband.”
Clearly shaken by the encounter, she added: “The idea that he knew that and thought of that with all that he’d been through, I just said to him ‘there would have been no Derek as it was, there would have been no me, there would have no any of our lives without what you did’. And he cried, we held hands.”
Over on X, otherwise known as Twitter, many ITV viewers reacted to John’s appearance on their screens as the veteran admitted he didn’t believe he was a hero.
“John you are a hero. We all could learn from your selflessness. Thankyou to you all those who served then and now”, one of them penned.
Another added: “All those men, lost at such a young age… Never got the chance to come home and live their lives Thank you for your service and even though many people, these days, seem to have forgotten the sacrifices that were made for this generation…. The rest do remember.”
Derek Draper was 56 when he died after a long battle with Covid-19, which he contracted for the first time in 2020. The former political advisor passed away from complications related to the infection and Kate took to Instagram to share the news of his death with an emotional statement.
“I’m sad to have to tell you all that my darling husband Derek has passed away,” she wrote. “As some of you may know he has been critically ill following a cardiac arrest in early December which, because of the damage inflicted by Covid in March 2020, led to further complications. Derek was surrounded by his family in his final days and I was by his side holding his hand throughout the last long hours and when he passed.”
Kate has since been vocal about the debt she was left in due to the care Derek needed in his last moments. The TV star revealed she had to spend £16k a month on care costs for her late husband and she resorted to a desperate measure to clear her debts.
