Kate Garraway was comforted by a D-Day veteran over the death of her husband Derek Draper.
Kate Garraway was moved by her emotional D-Day anniversary exchange
The 57-year-old television presenter was in northern France on Thursday (06.06.24) to front UK channel ITV’s coverage of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, and she spoke to 100-year-old war veteran John Life about his memories from 1944.
Speaking on ‘Good Morning Britain’ after their interview; she 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.
“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.’ “
Kate’s husband Derek died in January aged 56 following a four year health battle after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.
She admitted the emotional exchange between herself and John, a former Bombardier in the Royal Artillery, left him in tears.
She added: “He cried, we held hands. It’s hard to overstate really how important it is for them that we remember, and how important it is for us that we remember too.”
As part of the anniversary service in France, King Charles and Queen Camilla led a silent prayer for D-Day veterans.
Speaking at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, the monarch hailed the wartime generation as “remarkable”, and voiced his “profound sense of gratitude” for those who fought in the Second World War.
French President Emmanuel Macron was also there, along with British Prime Minister Rish Sunak, as they laid wreathes of poopies at the memorial while a brass band performed Elgar’s Nimrod, as well as the national anthems of both the UK and France.
The crowd gave veterans in attendance a standing ovation, while it was noted that 50 were there this time, compared to the 255 who were alive to travel for the 75th anniversary in 2019.
