TV presenter Kate Garraway has been forced to sell off the flat she was saving as a nest egg for old age to pay off debts accrued when her late husband Derek Draper was ill.
Although the pad in North London recently sold for £1.5m it was already heavily mortgaged and what’s left over will barely touch the sides of the huge sum she still owes.
Good Morning Britain host Kate, 58, wanted the property to be a long-term investment that she could turn to over the coming decade but had no choice but to sell it.
An insider said: “Kate takes paying off the debts very seriously and she’s always said she’d go to any lengths to achieve that.
“This is just part of that commitment, even if it does mean she’s had to lose the flat which she actually purchased years ago before meeting Derek and before they bought a family home together.
“Like many people, she was keeping it as a financial safety net which she thought she wouldn’t have to use so soon.”
Derek died last year – aged just 56 – after being crippled by an extreme case of long Covid after he caught the disease in March 2020.
She says she already had debts of between £600,000 and £800,000 as a result of caring for Derek. Kate claimed that the £16,000 monthly cost of her late husband’s care was more than her salary from ITV.
Then in May a recent liquidator’s report highlighted the significant tax liabilities still outstanding from Derek’s defunct psychotherapeutic company, Astra Aspera.
The latest claim demand from the taxman resulting from the business was just over £288,000.
At the time a spokesman for Kate said: “Caring for Derek and supporting her family when Derek could no longer run his own businesses has taken a huge financial toll on her but she’s determined to put things right.
“She is in constant contact with HMRC to make sure she honours what’s required from Derek’s now-defunct company.”
A spokesman for Kate declined to comment on the flat sale.
