Kate Garraway has opened up about how her son branded her a “monster” after she forced him to focus on his GCSEs.
The GMB star, 58, opened up about being a single mum following the death of her husband, Derek Draper, in a new podcast.
Kate Garraway on raising son Billy during Derek’s illness
Speaking to Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe on their Parenting Hell podcast, Kate spoke about the difficulties of raising their kids during Derek’s illness, and following his sad death.
Derek fell ill back in 2020 after contracting Covid-19. After spending a year in hospital, he returned home, where he continued to battle the effects of Long Covid.
Sadly, Derek passed away in January 2024, aged 56.
Opening up about the period where Derek was in hospital, Kate said: “Especially with my son, because he was the younger one, certainly when Derek was first sick and was in the coma for that year, I just kind of thought ‘Let’s just be happy’.
“So I was quite bad in the sense that I was definitely sort of saying, ‘Oh, we can’t get online for that, just don’t worry about that learning, let’s re-watch Nativity! for the 140th time”, which is one of his favourite movies,” she said.
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Kate on becoming a ‘monster’ to Billy
Continuing, Kate said, “I didn’t care about it. And then I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re now at GCSEs’.
“So he found it really hard because I was going ‘Come on Bill, you’ve got to focus’. He’s looking at me as if to say, ‘Why have you become a monster?’. In fact, he said that,” she revealed.
“What happened to ‘Come on, here’s some chocolate, let’s watch a movie – I don’t like this mummy now’,” she continued. “Nobody’s hoping for A stars and 9s you just want them to have access to choice and to feel good about themselves.
“We all know actually that things come along in life, and it’s never really actually to do with passing an exam, it’s to do with your attitude.”
Kate Garraway brands Billy’s GCSE period as ‘traumatic’
“I say, ‘I don’t really mind as long as you’re enthusiastic and you get involved. Just get involved, don’t fail and don’t drop out because you just couldn’t be bothered. And then if you keep trying stuff eventually you find something that excites you’,” she said.
Speaking about Billy’s GCSE period, she described it as “traumatic”.
“That was pretty traumatic. But he’s sort of got himself into a place to do what he wants to do, which is sort of music and acting. So you sort of feel like you think ‘ok, alright, we’re limping through gradually’,” she said.
“You sort of have to kind of celebrate the wins because you know you’ll turn round next time, you’ll turn round for a second and there’s like “oh, ok, you’ve fallen apart’.”
Kate also added that her daughter Darcy, who is now in uni, is doing “fine”.
She then added that she “curses” the world for leaving her to bring up her two children alone.
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