Kate Garraway has come under fire from Good Morning Britain viewers after she seemed to make light of a serious topic that left a woman dead.
During Thursday’s edition of the ITV show, Garraway shared the sad news about a British women who died recently from rabies after being “lightly scratched” by a dog in Morocco back in February.
“Did you see this extraordinary story about a woman, she was scratched very slightly by a stray dog whilst on holiday in February, that long ago, in Morocco,” Garraway stated.
She continued: “It wasn’t even a particularly bad one at the time. It didn’t seem to be infected. Then two weeks ago she started to feel very unwell, has now passed away.
“It’s made people very conscious, because rabies is something we don’t think about very much. It is astonishing.”
Referencing ITV’s doctor Hillary, she quipped: “I mean, what the doctors say, if I can do my doctor Hillary at the moment for a bit, is make sure you get an inoculation.
“But also, if you have any kind of scratch from any kind of wild animal or animal abroad, get treatments right away, because then it can be stopped.”
However, viewers quickly picked up on the jokey statement about doctor Hillary and expressed how they felt it had been in poor taste to the mother, who has been named as Yvonne Ford from Barnsley in South Yorkshire.
Taking to X, one stunned viewer complained: “Classy Kate cracking a rabies joke just after reporting on a rabies death. #gmb.”
“Noticed that too – made me wince. So insensitive,” a second responded.
A third asked: “Did Kate garraway just make an attempted joke about rabis after talking about the sad death of the lady from Barnsley?”
“Yesss!! I actually rewound it to make sure I’d heard right!” another noted.
Someone else fumed: “@GMB Is this a new trend for your presenters to be disrespectful to people that have just died? Lorraine Kelly about Kim Woodburn yesterday then Kate Garaway this morning just before 7 about the poor lady that’s just died after contacting rabies!”
The statement comes as Kelly, 65, was labelled “a disgrace” on Tuesday for the way in which she broke the news of Kim Woodburn’s death.
Returning from an ad break, a photo of Woodburn appeared on-screen as Kelly narrated: “Welcome back! Some news just breaking in the last few minutes.
“Kim Woodburn, who I’m sure you know… well, she’s died at the age of 83.
“Famous, of course, for How Clean Is Your House and her controversial time on Celebrity Big Brother.
“A representative for Kim said, ‘It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved Kim Woodburn passed away yesterday following a short illness’. Right, it is 10 past nine.”
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Fans fumed over the way in which Kelly showed little emotion and stated the news so casually.
Woodburn died on Monday, with her family confirming the sad news with a statement the following day.