Media personality Piers Morgan has opened up about his relationship with good friends Kate Garraway and her husband Derek Draper and the "heart-breaking" last few years the pair endured.

Good Morning Britain (GMB) Garraway revealed last Friday (January 5) that Draper had died aged 56 after suffering long-lasting complications from contracting Covid-19.

The former lobbyist and political adviser fell seriously ill with Covid-19 in March 2020 and spent 13 months in hospital before he was discharged.

Despite being free of the virus, he had suffered long-lasting damage to his organs and required daily care.

'I've never met a couple better suited' - Piers Morgan reveals friendship with 'pals' Kate Garraway and Derek Draper

Following Draper's death, Morgan opened up about his relationship with him and Garraway and the tragic few years they endured in an article in The Sun.

Morgan explained he had known the pair separately long before they became an item.

He said: "Derek was a smart, funny, hard-partying, sometimes ruthless Labour Party adviser with whom I regularly locked horns during my editorship of the Daily Mirror, and Kate was an equally smart, delightfully warm TV presenter without a ruthless bone in her body who became a good friend after interviewing me on ITV’s old GMTV breakfast show.

"To say I thought they were incompatible is the understatement of the century, hence my joke.

"But it soon transpired they were the perfect embodiment of the phrase ‘opposites attract.'

"In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never met a couple better suited, or who enjoyed a stronger and happier marriage.

"That’s what makes the tragedy which befell them even more heart-breaking."

Piers Morgan reveals moment he found out Derek Draper had Covid

Morgan recounted the moment he found our Draper had contracted Covid-19 in March 2020, a moment he said "I'll never forget".

Glasgow Times: Piers Morgan will never forget the moment he found out Derek Draper had contracted Covid-19 in March 2020.Piers Morgan will never forget the moment he found out Derek Draper had contracted Covid-19 in March 2020. (Image: PA)

He said: "I’ll never forget the call I took from Good Morning Britain’s editor on March 31 2020 in which he told me that Derek had been rushed to hospital after catching covid in the first wave of the deadly pandemic, and was in critical condition.

"There was no vaccine then, nor any therapeutic drugs to deal with the novel coronavirus, and thousands of people in Britain were dying every day.

"So, his prognosis was dire.

"I phoned Kate, then my GMB colleague, and we had a long, heart-rending conversation, one of many we’ve had since.

"She said the hospital had run out of ventilators and was so swamped with new seriously ill covid patients arriving that nobody in ICU could even come to the phone to tell her if Derek was alive or dead."

Reading back through messages with Kate Garraway made 'my eyes sting with tears' says Piers Morgan

Morgan said it was "hard to overstate" what Garraway and Draper had been through since March 2020. 

He added: "The constant 24/7 physical and mental torment inflicted on them both was far worse than people realise and would have destroyed most couples."

Glasgow Times: Piers Morgan has revealed he was brought to tears upon reading messages from Kate Garraway following Derek Draper's death.Piers Morgan has revealed he was brought to tears upon reading messages from Kate Garraway following Derek Draper's death. (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA)

The media personality said he was brought to tears when he revisited the messages, following Draper's death, he had exchanged with Garraway in recent years.

Morgan said: "Reading back through our hundreds of texts and reliving the traumatic roller-coaster ride of hope and despair they went on in real time, made my eyes sting with tears.

"But instead of breaking them, it made them even closer.

"At one stage, Kate admitted to me: ‘It’s a living hell to be honest. I keep saying I can’t bear it but then somehow do. It’s managing feeling, and holding in the same moment your greatest hope, greatest fear, and total uncertainty about what way it’s going to go – all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever loved him more or felt more at risk of losing him. But at least I still have hope which lots of people have had taken away from them.’"

Despite what was going on at home Garraway continued her media commitments, among them presenting GMB, which Morgan explained she would sometimes be doing on "barely any sleep" and being a solo-parent for her and Draper's two children - Darcey and Billy.

Piers Morgan's last conversation with Derek Draper

In recent times Draper was mainly uncommunicative, but he would have his moments where he would be able to string the occasional word or two together.

Morgan said these "periods of lucidity" kept Garraway going.

It was one of these moments of lucidity that provided Morgan with one of, if not the last conversation he would ever have with Draper.

He had called Garraway the night before he was set to interview her on his final Life Stories show, which she now hosts.

Morgan recounted: "When I rang her the night before, and asked how Derek was doing, she said: ‘He’s next to me now, why don’t you ask him yourself?’

"I was stunned. 

"‘Darling, it’s Piers,’ I heard Kate say. 

"‘Derek!’ I cried. ‘It’s so good to talk to you!’ 

"There was a pause and then I heard a familiar voice say clearly and firmly: ‘Hello!’ 

"‘HELLO!’ I stammered back. ‘It’s great to hear your voice again. Keep battling Derek – we’re all so proud of you!’ 

"Another pause, then, ‘Thank you!’

"Kate came back on the line.

"‘Wow!’ I said. ‘Yes, wow!’ she replied. 

"‘I wasn’t expecting that.’

"‘Nor was I!’

"She told me the next day that one of his carers burst into tears afterwards because he hadn’t interacted like that for so long.

"And Kate herself shed tears in our interview that day when she recounted another three words that Derek had finally said to her again: ‘I love you.’"

'Devastated, but not entirely shocked' - the moment Kate Garraway told Piers Morgan Derek Draper had died

Morgan said he was in Los Angeles last Friday (January 5) when he got a message from Garraway that he'd "dreaded for nearly four years".

Morgan, recounting Garraway's message, said: "‘Dearest Piers,’ it began, ‘Derek has passed away…’

"I was devastated, but not entirely shocked.

"Kate had told me things were looking very bleak when we texted each other on Christmas Day."

Draper had a heart attack just before Christmas while in Mexico, where he was receiving specialist treatment.

Garraway endured a 12-hour flight with Draper on a medical-evacuation plane to London.

But Draper never recovered and died in hospital.

Morgan said: "I’ll very sadly never see him again. Nor, far more sadly, will Kate."

Before concluding his article with: "RIP Derek."