EXCLUSIVE: Kate Garraway’s heartbreaking reasons for refusing to find love after husband Derek’s death

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Garraway’s nearest and dearest would love her to find happiness again with someone new but as a source maintains, the GMB presenter isn’t ready yet

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Friends and family just ‘want Kate to be happy’(Image: BANG Showbiz)

After Kate Garraway shut down rumours that she was dating again, a source reveals she has a well-meaning cheerleading team around her who want nothing more than to see her loved-up once again. The Good Morning Britain host spoke out about potentially taking tentative steps back into dating after losing her husband Derek Draper, but confessed that she found the idea of being with anyone but him “preposterous”.

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Kate, 58, was married to the political lobbyist-turned-psychotherapist for almost two decades, until his death in January 2024 aged 56, following a long battle with Covid. Opening up about how she’s coped since becoming a single parent to her and Derek’s two children, Darcey, now 19, and Billy, 16, Kate, as OK! reports, revealed she didn’t like the thought of spending “the rest of her life without love”.

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Kate is now a single parent to her two children with late husband Derek Draper(Image: Getty Images for the NTA’s)

However, she also admitted that she couldn’t see herself with anyone else, adding, “What Derek and I loved was our home life and just pottering around, and we had 21 years of that, so mentally I am still in that zone.” Our source goes on to claim that, despite her reservations, some of Kate’s friends are actively encouraging her to at least explore the possibility of dating someone new.

“There is someone who’s interested and her friends are encouraging her just to explore that and see how it makes her feel,” our source claims. “But Kate isn’t really ready for anything more than friendship right now. It’s still too soon, so no one is trying to force things.

“It would be lovely for her to just take things really slowly, and even see herself as a single woman again. One who has a lot to offer and deserves a lot in return. There’s talk about her starting to go out for a few dinners, and going slowly.”

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There has been rumbling speculation recently about Kate’s love life, with various gossip sites claiming to have unearthed her “new man”. The posts, many of which seem to include photographs of either married friends or Kate’s co-workers, have inevitably attracted a flurry of comments from people weighing in on when the time is right to move on after the death of a partner.

On a Facebook post linking the former I’m A Celeb star to a “close friend of her late husband”, a person commented that she’d “got over Derek quick enough”, but was quickly shut down by more of the well-intentioned followers. Further supportive comments included one from a fellow widower: “To find love again is wonderful. Unless you have experienced a terrible sadness, you will never know the emptiness and loneliness you feel.”

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Kate, who cared for Derek for four years after he was struck down with Covid, thinks of him ‘every day’

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Another added, “Good luck Kate. You deserve it. You gave a lot to Derek, your turn now, keep the head up.” Our source maintains that one of the reasons Kate isn’t jumping head first into a new relationship is the fear of being judged, or upsetting those around her.

“Of course, she questions and worries about what others might think if she had another man in her life, it’s just part of who she is. She’d never want to hurt or upset anyone else, especially her children”, they say.

“But actually, all her friends, even her family and kids just want her to be happy. They know she deserves it. She went through hell caring for Derek right up until the end. Four years is a long time to go through something so difficult. But not a day goes by when she doesn’t remember Derek or share a funny story about him. He’ll always be in her heart.”

Ahead of her upcoming stint on Celebrity Traitors, Kate also revealed that she was still existing mentally in the “zone” of the life they shared, but aware that she was “going to have to think about the future at some point”.

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The TV presenter is one of the celebs taking part in the new series of Celebrity Traitors(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/CodyBurridge/Matt Burlem)

According to psychotherapist Kamalyn Kaur, Kate’s conflicted feelings are very normal. “What Kate described, about still being mentally in the world she built with Derek, is a very natural stage of grieving and adjusting to a new identity,” she tells . “There’s no rush for her, and honouring that ‘not yet’ feeling is actually a sign of self-awareness and emotional integrity.”

Signals that Kate might be ready to take those next romantic steps, Kamalyn adds, might include a time when her curiosity about “connection and companionship” start to outweigh feelings of fear and resistance, and she can picture the possibility of building something new without it feeling “like a betrayal” of what she shared with Derek.

“The right time is less about a calendar and more about when the heart feels open to exploring new connections,” she explains. “She’s definitely doing the right thing by following her feelings and going with what feels right, rather than pushing herself to date when she’s not ready yet.”