Kate Garraway emotional as crying D-Day soldier comforts her over Derek Draper's death

Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway held hands with a crying soldier as they remembered her late husband, Derek Draper, amid D-Day commemorations.

The ITV presenter was at Ver-Sur-Mer as she described her experience of walking in the footsteps of those who fought on D-Day. Commemorations were underway in Normandy to mark the day's 80th anniversary, remembering all of those who had lost their lives in the war.

Kate explained that there are still some surviving veterans and heroes who had travelled to be at the 80th anniversary of D-Day. One of them was 100-year-old John Life, who the presenter had the pleasure of speaking to.

She said: "The passion with which he wanted to make this journey because he knew he may not see another D-Day commemoration was overwhelming. And I sat down with him amongst those gravestones to speak with him about his memories of that day."

The ITV show cut to a clip of John speaking as he recalled landing on the beach. He became emotional as he remembered what happened on Sword Beach. Kate thanked the former soldier for everything he had done for the country as she said he was "amazing".

When the clip ended, Kate said: "One of the first things he said was 'I'm so sorry for your loss' to me, about the passing of Derek, my husband.

"And the idea that he knew that and thought of that with all that he had been through, I just said to him 'Look, there would have been no Derek, there would have been no me, there would have been no any of our lives without what you did'.

"He cried and we held hands. It's hard to overstate really how important it is for them that we remember and how important it is for us that we remember too."

Kate, 57, lost her husband, Derek, when he died at the age of 56 in January, after battling extreme complications from Covid. Recently, the presenter has candidly disclosed her financial challenges after caring for Derek.

The ITV host divulged that she withdrew funds from her pension ahead of schedule to manage the spiralling costs.

Kate confessed: "I have had to withdraw the bit you can tax-free from my pension to pay for belated bills for my husband, who has now passed away. People are having to do things - it wasn't a huge pension in the first place - which aren't what they saved for."