Kate Garraway returned to ‘Good Morning Britain’ earlier today (13.07.20) after three months away – but "quite a lot went wrong" upon her comeback.
The 53-year-old TV presenter has been away from her hosting duties as her husband Derek Draper has been seriously ill after contracting coronavirus, and while he is out of a coma and now Covid-free, she admitted last Wednesday (08.07.20) he is still "desperately" ill and remains in hospital.
Kate’s ‘GMB’ co-host Ben Shephard welcomed her back as the programme began this morning, saying: "I’ve got a big smile on my face.
"It’s lovely to see you. Nothing has gone wrong yet, Kate."
But Kate admitted there had been a few issues today – including her car not turning up.
She said: "Well, you say that, but quite a lot has gone wrong already.
"The car picking me didn’t show up.
"A poor, really senior person called Daniel came in really early to make sure my computer worked, because I’m legendary for being useless with computers.
"Having been away for three months the chances are nobody could even find it, let alone anything else.
"And just as I arrived it went into a two-hour update, so his two hours getting in early were utterly wasted.
"And apparently we haven’t got anyone on autocue today either?"
Ben said: "Our autocue operator has overslept. Maybe they had the same driver as you?
"Cameron has stepped into the breach, so he’s going to be running the autocue.
"So who knows what we will be saying. But I’m sure he’s going to do a great job.
"It’s lovely to have you here, though."
GMB’s resident meteorologist Laura Tobin said: "It’s so nice to see you in real life. It feels so wonderful and so right."
But Kate admitted she didn’t want her co-stars to be "too nice" in case she started crying.
She said: "That’s really nice, but don’t be too nice to me because I get emotional.
"Just go back to being rude."
Dr. Hilary Jones said: "It’s fabulous to have you back sitting over there, and not us talking on the phone."
Kate admitted she had attempted to dye her hair but her tresses had gone "almost fluorescent".
She said: "When I got in the car this morning it looked almost fluorescent. It is a little blonder than we might be expecting.
"But if ever there’s a professional crisis: Fake tan, put very long false eyelashes on, and go blonder.
"That was my preparation tactic."
Ben added: "That’s it. It’s lovely having you back."
Kate said: "We’ll have some fun this morning. We’ve had a lot of emotion."
The star revealed last Wednesday she would be returning to ‘GMB’ today, after Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid went on their summer break.
She said: "It’s life, it’s livelihood, it’s fear and anxiety, I have got to get on and do the things I’m good at. I’m going to come back on Monday, if you’ll have me, you two are going. I’ve not quite got the fight to be a Piers Morgan but I’m gonna be with Ben Shephard.
"The doctors have said I’ve got to get on, they’ve been worried about me."
Updating viewers about Derek’s condition, she said: "His eyes are opening but we have no knowledge of what he can see or hear.
"It’s a very desperate situation, it’s very difficult and of course there’s fantastic hope he is still alive, he is the doctors keep saying it is a miracle he’s still alive.
"I was speaking to somebody yesterday, a doctor who has treated him in two hospitals and he said, ‘He’s as sick as anyone I’ve ever seen in 35 years of medicine, never mind Covid, and some of those people are no longer here.’
"It’s great that he’s here, there’s flickers of hope, his lungs are starting to recover, his kidneys and liver are doing better but they don’t know how much better he can get and there’s nothing to compare it to."