Piers Morgan’s rude jibe that got him starring role in Kate Garraway’s wedding

Kate Garraway and husband Derek Draper celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary today, but with Derek’s health hanging in the balance, it will be a somber occasion for the couple.

Derek has been gravely ill since he was rushed to hospital on March 29 with coronavirus.

The former Labour lobbyist – who doctors told Kate was the sickest patient they had ever treated who has managed to survive this long – has survived through organ shutdown, lung and kidney failure, and now struggles to digest food since Covid-19 rampaged through his body.

While he no longer has the disease, the damage it has caused has been extensive and doctors don’t know when – or even if – he’ll be able to fully recover.

As the couple celebrate 15 years since their nuptials, we look back at happier times, and how telly Marmite Piers Morgan landed himself a starring role in their wedding day.

Many people are unaware of Kate and Piers’ close friendship.

The Good Morning Britain presenters are rarely seen on-screen together – with Piers hosting at the start of the week and Kate at the end.

But away from the cameras, Piers has been constant support for his pal through thick and thin for decades, proving they are way more than just work colleagues.

It is only now in Kate’s darkest hour, with Derek still fighting for his life in hospital, that their unbelievable bond has truly come to light.

Piers has actually known Derek for just as long, if not longer, than he has known Kate – and they used to have a major rivalry.

Derek was a big political lobbyist while Piers was editor of the Daily Mirror, so the pair had confrontations over the years.

“He was quite aggressive then and we would lock horns,” confessed Piers on GMB.

But Derek left the world of politics and “changed” a lot over the next few years, striking up an unlikely friendship with Piers.

Kate was introduced to husband Derek by a GMTV colleague, Gloria De Piero, in 2004, and they got married the following year at St Mary The Virgin Church in Primrose Hill.

They followed it up with a northern wedding for Lancashire-born Derek, gathering at St Mary’s Parish Club in Chorley.

Piers was stunned when he first found out that Kate and Derek were in a relationship and made a hilariously mean joke to the pair.

Admitting they were an unlikely duo, Piers said: “Because I knew you both separately but when I knew you were getting married I was like, ‘What?!'”

During a Press Gazette awards, Piers came in and cried: “Derek [swear word] Draper?

“If I’d known your bar was set so low I’d have had a crack myself.”

Luckily, Kate and Derek found the comment so funny that they made it part of their wedding day.

“It made Derek laugh and you put it on your wedding menus!” Piers said.

The couple wed after Kate split from her first husband Ian Rumsey, who she was with between 1998 and 2002.

The pair now have two children together: Darcey, 14, who was born on March 10, 2006, and William, 11, who followed on July 28, 2009.