Ben Shephard reveals Kate Garraway has asked him to be ‘brilliantly rude’ to her

 Ben Shephard has revealed Kate Garraway has asked him to be ‘brilliantly rude’ to her when she returns to host Good Morning Britain.

The presenter, 53, will return to the show next week while Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid take their summer break. 

Ben, 45, and his co-anchor Ranvir Singh, 35, reflected on Kate’s emotional interview on Thursday’s show, as she discussed her critically-ill husband Derek Draper’s battle with COVID-19. 

On Wednesday Kate returned to the show update fans on her husband’s condition while he remains in a ‘minimum state of consciousness’ in intensive care after coronavirus caused ‘extraordinary damage’ on his body.    

Ben said: ‘It was really great to see Kate in the studio smiling, talking very honestly about the situation Derek is in.

‘He continues to be critical, although he is out of the coma and they can FaceTime, it’s not simple.

‘She did have a really, really lovely announcement for all of us.

Ben continued: ‘It’s a big step, a really important step as she was talking about yesterday, openly, particularly for her and for Darcey and Billy and Derek’s ongoing condition.

‘And I think the other thing that was really key from Kate’s perspective yesterday was that there are families who are going through similar things up and down the country and her thoughts and concerns are with them as well.’ 

Ranvir said: ‘I don’t know how she does it.

‘And hasn’t she been through enough without having to sit next to you?’

To which Ben joked: ‘She did say brilliantly that she wants me to be rude to her. I am warming up, I am very, very prepared.’

During Kate’s interview, she revealed her husband Derek remains in a ‘desperate situation’ and has almost died six times when his organs failed during his 100-day battle with coronavirus.  

The former I’m A Celebrity star admitted she was ‘absolutely gripped by fear’ at times when the former political lobbyist was in a coma, but said he has amazed doctors with his resilience and they have ‘fantastic hope’.

Kate, who is mum to BIlly, 10 and Darcey, 14, explained how Derek has now started to open his eyes as she left the family’s ‘little bubble of sadness’ to return to the Good Morning Britain studio for the first time since her husband contracted the deadly disease.

She told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: ‘It’s a strange word coma, he was induced which was what they were doing then because it was a way of resting the lungs, of course they’re no longer keeping him in the coma but he’s not fully awake.  

‘There’s two types of coma, there’s the one we think of as vegetative coma, and the one Derek is in which is a minimum station of consciousness, wonderfully his eyes are open but we have no real knowledge of what he can see or hear.’

Kate said that despite Derek’s ill health she remains hopeful that he will recover, as he has already defied expectations with his incredible progress.  

She added: ‘It is a very desperate situation, it’s very very difficult, of course there’sf fantastic hope he’s still alive, the doctors do keep saying it’s a miracle he’s still alive. I was speaking to a doctor yesterdayday who said he’s stick as anyone I’ve ever seen in 35 years of medicine, and some of those people who were as sick of him aren’t here. Six times they said he’s not going to make it, and obviously you couldn’t visit. 

 ‘So he’s been very very sick, but it’s a new disease, there’s no data, so what they can say is it’s great he’s here. There’s flickers of hope, his lings are starting to recover, his kidneys are doing better, his liver, but they don’t know how much better he can get.’