Controversial commentator Katie Hopkins has been criticised for mocking ITV presenter Kate Garraway after the death of her husband, Derek Draper.
Draper was said to be one of the UK’s longest-suffering COVID patients, spending 13 months in hospital after contracting the virus in March 2020, and died earlier this month.
In a video posted on X, Hopkins – who has one million followers on the site – wrongly claimed ITV was set to air a documentary titled “Life after Derek”, with Garraway releasing a book to go with it.
Neither claim is true, but the former Apprentice contestant added that “he’s only been dead a week” as she laughed and drank a glass of red wine.
“8.30 tonight there’s a documentary on the TV that you all need to watch, yeah, it’s a Kate Garraway documentary, so it’s important that I finish on time for you tonight,” she said in the post on Saturday.
“And it’s Kate Garraway: Life After Derek.”
She laughed, before adding: “There’s also a book she’s releasing to go with the documentary… he’s only been dead a week.”
Along with the video, which has been “viewed” more than four million times according to X’s scrutinised figures, she said the documentary is “allegedly sponsored by Fizzzzzzzeeerr”, in a reference to the Pfizer COVID vaccine.
Draper contracted the illness long before the vaccine was available.
Reacting to the video, broadcaster Lorraine King described Hopkins as a “sick person”, while comedian Dom Joly said she has “zero empathy” and is a “total grifter”.
Read more:
Garraway says public support is ‘extraordinary comfort’
Elton John and Tony Blair pay tribute to ‘brilliant’ Draper
Other social media users responded to the video, with some people writing that her comments were “horrible”.
Hopkins had been permanently banned from X – then known as Twitter – in 2020 for breaching its rules on “abuse and harmful contact”, before being reinstated last year.
She used to present on radio broadcaster LBC but was sacked after making comments about the Manchester Arena bombing.
She has also compared migrants to cockroaches and said she would use gunships to stop them from crossing borders.
