KATE Garraway gets festive ahead of her first Christmas without her husband Derek.

The GMB host, 57, told woman&home magazine on sale on Thursday, she wanted it to be fun and happy for their two children.

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“It’s been a tough few years for them,” she added.

Derek died at 56 in January after a lengthy Covid battle.

Kate recently opened up on her first wedding anniversary without Derek following.

The Good Morning Britain star emotionally told The Sun how the special day went following Derek’s passing in January.

Kate appeared at this year’s National Television Awards as she and her children Darcey and Billy collected the gong for Derek’s Story, which followed the final year of his life.

It came just a day after Kate marked what would have been her 20th wedding anniversary to the late political adviser.

She said: “I think everyone says the first year is the hardest, I don’t know if that would be the case, but you do have all the milestones that really trigger memories and that one I found personally very difficult.

“Because, whereas Easter, the kids’ birthdays, we’re very sad with him not with us, that would have been made all about the whole family when he was alive, whereas in this instance it felt like a very personal day between him and I.”

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Laverne Cox has shamed the Republican party for “going all-in on their transphobia” this election season.

The 52-year-old actor, who rose to fame playing trans inmate Sophia on Netflix’s prison drama Orange is the New Black, has long used her platform to advocate for transgender causes and inclusion.

Appearing on The Daily Show on Thursday (17 October), Cox took the opportunity to raise awareness of the disinformation surrounding anti-trans legislation and campaigning.

Wearing purple to honour Spirit Day – an annual day to fight anti-LGBT bullying on the third Thursday in October – Cox pointed towards the surge in anti-LGBT legislation across the US, listing off statistics such as the 25 states that banned transgender under-18s from accessing gender-affirming care.

“Thanks for making sure schools don’t teach about sexual orientation or gender identity, because pretending trans kids don’t exist means they disappear, just like pretending climate change doesn’t exist… it disappears too!,” she said, joking, “So I guess we will never know why my t**s are sweating in December.”

Cox highlighted that Donald Trump and the Republican party have spent $65 million (£49 million) on campaign ads peddling anti-trans rhetoric. One of them targets presidential candidate Kamala Harris over her support for gender-affirming care.

One Trump ad highlights comments the VP made in 2019, when she said she supported “surgical care” for trans prisoners. The ad shows Harris posing next to Pattie Gonia, a drag queen. The campaign ends with the voiceover: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Transgender rights activists have said the ads “attack trans people” and only intensify the right-wing anti-LGBT rhetoric.

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Hitting back at the ads, Cox said: “Do you know how disappointing it is for someone to finally spend $65 million on me and it’s for this crap? I didn’t want hateful attack ads. I wanted a house in the Hills with six walk-in closets!”

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Cox then draws the line from the campaign noting that unlike the GOP, she didn’t get her facts from “StraightOutOfTheirAss.com.”

“This is straight out of the bigotry handbook, using dehumanising language on marginalised groups provides a permission structure to attack them, because, when people are rendered no longer human, you can take away their rights, [and] commit violence against them with impunity.”

Cox then made light of the ongoing legal dispute between North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson and CNN, which reported in September that the Republican left a litany of disturbing comments on a pornography website before entering politics. Robinson has denied the claims that he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and said he enjoys watching trans pornography, and is taking legal action against the outlet.

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Cox said: “If you had told me anti-trans politicians were secretly watching – and loving – trans porn, I would’ve said, ‘Duh.’”

“I’m 52 years old and if I had a dime for every conservative man who’s tried to get with me, I could buy that house in the Hills.”

“Turning us into sex objects is just another way of dehumanising us,” she explained. “And I think it’s time to stop dehumanising and start rehumanising each other.”

Cox then showed a map that suggested that top searches for trans porn are all in red states.

“We see you,” she concludes. “We see all of you. All we ask is that you see us, too. And that you pull your damn pants up.”

Cox’s comments come after Republicans have cracked down on trans adults’ access to medical treatments such as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) in several states.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican-dominated legislature banned gender transition procedures for under-18s, as well as non-physicians such as nurse practitioners issuing HRT prescriptions.

Brandon Wolf, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told The Guardian: “The Maga [Make America great again] agenda is one of division, chaos and hate.”

“They pit neighbours against one another and try to divide our communities because they don’t have a vision for lifting people up or bringing the nation together.”

A GOGGLEBOX star has revealed her very normal job, three years after quitting the show with her family.

The Tapper family – parents Nikki and Jonathan and children Josh and Amy – appeared on the show since it started back in 2013.

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In 2018, Amy Tapper shocked fans when she announced she was leaving to try and find love on Celebs Go Dating – and she has since become a social media star.

But she’s now revealed another job she does on the side of social media.

Amy works as a hairdresser, and shared a playful video from inside the award-winning Hertfordshire salon she works at.

The Gogglebox alum captioned it: “Nothing better than a busy salon to kick start the weekend!!”

In the fun clip, Amy could be seen smacking two cushions together, while someone behind her held up a broom and pretended to play it like a musical instrument.

They danced about to a song and captioned the video: “Busy Fridays got us like…” as Amy stood in a blue jumper behind the reception desk.

Last summer, Amy revealed she had lost three stone in six months.

At this point, she’d been on her weight loss journey for two years, and documented her determination to lose weight in 2021 after she had lost more than three stone.

At the time, the reality TV star had been jumping from one fad diet to another until she turned her life around during lockdown.

Amy had dropped three dress sizes from 26 to 20 by cutting down her portion sizes and dancing around her home.

She soon took to social media radiating with her new found confidence.

And earlier this year, it was good news for the Tapper family as Amy’s brother Josh got engaged.

Sharing a snap of her brother, 26, and his partner Hannah flashing her ring, a delighted Amy wrote: “The phone called I’ve been waiting for and the best news in the entire world.

“My friends are engaged. I officially have a sister.”

She then posted a picture of where the proposal took place – revealing petals, candles and framed pictures of the couple.

Amy added: “Welcome to the family Han, couldn’t wish for anyone better.”

Josh and Hannah are teenage sweethearts who have dated since they were around 17 years old.

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IN an optimistic bid to add TV’s Glitterball to his trophy collection, Paul Merson is approaching Strictly like football – and he isn’t ready for an early bath.

The former England, Arsenal and Aston Villa star says he is getting match-fit for the gruelling routines on the BBC One dance contest, and has already shed almost 2st.

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And though Paul, 56, is regularly at the bottom of the show’s scoreboard, he insists he is fighting back as if he were playing for a team that was ­dangerously low in the league.

He said: “I’m 100 per cent in a ­relegation battle because the ­standards on this year’s show are through the roof. Some of the other dancers are just amazing.

“And now Toyah Willcox has gone, it will be hard for me and I am up against it. But I don’t look that far ahead. I live in the moment.

“I’m used to just putting my boots on and getting the job done. I won’t be big-headed but that was my job — I was good at football.”

Three-times-married Paul, who has eight children, faced Toyah in the dance-off — and got all four judges to vote to keep him in.

He said: “It was heads or tails, but in the end I won quite ­easily. I did — I won four-nil!”

Even so, he is realistic about his slim chances of winning, particularly since his odds are ­currently 100/1, compared to the favourite, comic Chris McCausland, at 4/6.

Really proud

But simply discovering he can dance was a revelation in itself, and he said: “That ­surprised me immensely. Honestly, I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I’d danced three times — once at each of my three weddings.

“I’ve improved a hundredfold. But that’s the whole idea of the show — people come on who have got two left feet and they try to get better and better.

“Also, my aim was to get well under 14st before I went out of Strictly, and I’m 14st right now — I haven’t been that light for 20 years.

“So when I was in the dance-off I was like, ‘I’m 14st 3lb — I need to stay!’ So it’s not about staying in to win, I just want to lose more weight.

“If I work hard this week I should get under 14st.”

Inevitably there has been lots of chatter among footballing peers about him taking part in the show.

Paul said: “Everybody I’ve talked to has gone, ‘Fair play to you’. [Strictly 2022 contestant] Tony Adams said, ‘Don’t do it’, but he loves it really.

“Jermain Defoe was asking me about it and I said, ‘If I was you, do it’. I wouldn’t tell anybody not to do this. It has been an amazing experience so far.”

And continuing the football references, he said of his Strictly pro partner Karen Hauer: “She’s amazing. I call her [Man City manager] Pep Guardiola. She gets me. The dances I do are sensible for my body.

“If she puts something in the ­choreography and I can’t get it, we just move on and do something else.

I’m used to just putting my boots on and getting the job done. I won’t be big-headed but that was my job — I was good at football

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, it’s been great. I turn up for training smiling, I leave smiling. It’s been an amazing experience.”

 Karen added: “It’s already massive, what he’s doing — putting himself out there like this and being a complete novice in everything. The past couple of weeks have been awesome.”

For Paul, there is a serious reason for wanting to be on Strictly that extends beyond bagging another ­trophy or getting fit again.

Once one of the highest earners in football, he is a well-known former gambler who splurged £7million and racked up huge debts through his addiction before eventually cleaning up his act.

He said: “One of the big bonuses of doing Strictly is that for all those people out there struggling with addiction, I am showing them that you can do it and that there is a life beyond the struggles.

“That’s what I’ve done. Because addiction withdraws you from everybody. It wants you on your own.

“It wants to destroy you. What I’m doing now just shows you how well I am in myself.”

There is no understating how much Paul, a Sky Sports pundit, has turned his life around.

 At his lowest point in the Nineties, he even considered breaking his own fingers to stop himself ringing his bookie to bet.

His habit was accompanied by huge amounts of booze and drugs, and in 1994, at the height of his career, he publicly revealed his addictions.

In 2003, when he was 35, the desperate star cashed in his £800,000 pension pot to go on a gambling frenzy.

My aim was to get well under 14st before I went out of Strictly, and I’m 14st right now — I haven’t been that light for 20 years

He blamed substance abuse for fuelling his gambling, which was often on horse and dog racing.

Different life

But it sometimes saw him place bizarre bets, including £10,000 on the Eurovision Song ­Contest and £5,000 on a televised bowls match.

When his first wife Lorraine, with whom he had three sons, discovered he had blown £10,000 betting on a snooker match, she divorced him.

 His second marriage, to Louise Bache, produced twin girls but in 2013 it also failed, amid his gambling addiction.

Now Paul is happily wed to third wife Kate, with whom he has had three more children.

So for many people struggling with addiction, he is a huge role model — and he knows that responsibility is even greater now he is on Strictly.

The sequins and the glitter, that’s the bit I find really hard — but I can only blame myself for looking like a bit of a fool

Paul said: “I meet people who are struggling. They go, ‘How are you doing it?’ and I say, ‘By ­getting well’.

“When people see me better and doing something like Strictly, it has a knock-on effect. There’s light at the end of the tunnel for people like me.

“I struggled to get up on that dance floor. But we’re ill people who need to get well. We’re not bad people who need to get good.”

Paul revealed Kate is concerned about what the next chapter in their life holds, post-Strictly.

He said: “Our life has completely changed. She said it’s different at home now because all the kids have started school.

“She’s a bit worried about when I leave this competition because it’s a different life now and I’m not used to it. I like to keep on doing stuff, I don’t like sitting around. But, you know, this isn’t community service.

“I don’t have to do this, I want to do it. It’s my choice, so enjoy it. My experience has been great.

“I don’t worry about things that are out of my hands. It was a bit like when we were in the dance-off. I just said to Karen, ‘What do we do now?’

“But what will be, will be. I’ll just go out there and enjoy myself.

“The sequins and the glitter, that’s the bit I find really hard — but I can only blame myself for looking like a bit of a fool.”

•  Strictly is on BBC One today at 6.25pm.

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Disney has been delivered a crushing blow in its lawsuit battle with former The Mandalorian star Gina Carano.

The actor, 41, is suing the studio, alongside Lucasfilm, for discrimination and wrongful termination after the former MMA fighter was dropped from the Star Wars spin-off in February 2021 for sharing a social media post in which she appeared to compare the Republican experience in the US to that of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Carano filed a complaint in California federal court, with help from X/Twitter owner Elon Musk, accusing the entertainment companies of damaging her reputation and discriminating her based on her gender. As part of the lawsuit, Carano questioned why the studios did not give similar treatment to her former co-star Pedro Pascal over posts he shared on topical subjects.

While Disney attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out, stating that Carano’s decision “to publicly trivialise the Holocaust by comparing criticism of political conservatives to the annihilation of millions of Jewish people was the final straw”, a judge has denied the studio’s appeal, and the trial will move ahead in September 2025.

US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said:“Having considered the parties’ submissions, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court DENIES the Motion.”

Carano said in response to the decision: “I am obviously very pleased with the opportunity to keep moving forward with the judicial process and into discovery. While I wish this was not necessary as it is not my desire to be in this battle in court, I will not shrink away from it because it is hard or uncomfortable.”

The Independent has contacted Disney for additional comment.

In a section of the lawsuit titled “Social Media Posts from Carano’s Co-Stars”, Carano questioned Disney and Lucasfilm’s lack of response to posts shared on X/Twitter by her former co-star Pascal, with whom she previously claimed to reach an agreement with over their opposing beliefs.

The lawsuit reads: “Carano respects the rights of her co-stars to express their views on social media, even if they differ from her own, and she remains personally fond of each of them. However, Defendants’ treatment of Carano stands in stark contrast to Defendants’ embrace of her male co- stars and other male employees, so the following examples are provided to demonstrate the discriminatory treatment Carano endured at the hands of Defendants.”

Carano’s lawyers then cited posts in which Pascal supported Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights, stating: “On June 27, 2020, Pascal posted two Disney-owned Muppet characters, Bert and Ernie, as activists waving a transgender and LGBTQ+ pride flag and promoting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Defund the Police’.”

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Another post shared in the lawsuit shows Pascal comparing Donald Trump to Hitler.

It reads: “Upon information and belief, Pascal was not disciplined, required to review documentaries on any of these topics or speak to individuals with contrary points of view, or pressured to apologise for any of his posts. His employment was not terminated, and Defendants made no public statements about his social media posts, much less refer to them as ‘abhorrent’.”

Carano is seeking a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her and at least $75,000 (£57,500), plus punitive damages.

ITN has faced criticism from senior journalists and staff after a report on how it deals with internal complaints raised concerns about “low trust and psychological safety”.

The media company has been told to review its use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and improve its whistleblowing processes after allegations that it used NDAs to cover up gender pay discrimination, harassment and bullying.

The summary of a report by the law firm Simmons & Simmons, seen by the Guardian, found issues around “low trust and psychological safety within parts of ITN and that this continues to have an impact on the willingness of some individuals to raise concerns”.

The report was commissioned by ITN, which creates news for Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV. It recommended that its CEO, Rachel Corp, “oversee [a] review of existing NDAs/confidentiality provisions and consider revisiting them with the individuals concerned, if appropriate”. ITN said it will introduce an enhanced “speak-up” service for confidential complaints.

For the report 45 current and former ITN staff and freelancers were interviewed about their experiences from 2018 to 2024. While the report did “identify material legal concerns” about the use of NDAs, it found that “the internal and external messaging by ITN was, at times, unclear and inconsistent and that this contributed to wider concerns in some cases”.

In a town hall meeting on Thursday, senior figures, including Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the main anchor on Channel 4 News, criticised the company’s management of complaints and its impact on staff trust. “If this was a public-sector organisation, we would say, looking at this report, I’m surprised there have been no resignations or firings,” he said. Guru-Murthy declined to comment.

Corp, who was editor of ITV News before she was appointed ITN chief executive in 2022, said in a letter to staff that “it is clear at times we have not met the high standards we expect of ourselves when people have raised concerns, and I apologise for that”. She added: “I fully accept that where we have fallen short, we must do better.”

In a letter to staff, Kyla Mullins, chair of the ITN board, said it was “determined that ITN learns from this review”. She thanked those who had given evidence, saying: “We know that this was not always easy.”

One of the women who gave evidence to the legal review said: “Krishnan says if this were a public-sector broadcaster people would be fired for how appallingly staff in Channel 4 News have been treated. Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster. It has said and done nothing in years about this.”

Rohit Kachroo, ITV News’s global security editor, said the company was in a cycle “where ITN has a review or some sort of initiative, glossy things go up on the intranet, and then in the years between nothing happens, the issues are left to languish”.

ITN has faced allegations that it used NDAs to cover up misconduct by former staff members for several years, with a former employee of Channel 4 News telling the Guardian in 2022 that she was left ​ feeling “traumatised” and “gagged” after signing a settlement agreement containing a confidentiality clause with the company.

The Conservative MP Maria Miller, a former culture secretary, wrote that year to Deborah Turness, then CEO of ITN and now the BBC’s CEO of news and current affairs, expressing her concern about “the apparent use of NDAs to cover up wrongdoing”.

Zelda Perkins, a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein and co-founder of the anti-NDA campaign group Can’t Buy My Silence, said the latest response from ITN was “mealy mouthed” and insufficient. “ITN has been making the same platitudes for years,” she added. “NDAs should not be used to hide alleged misconduct on any level. If you want to stop misconduct, you have to take away the tools that hinder transparency.”

An ITN spokesperson said: “We fully accept the findings of this independent review into our handling of complaints which found that at times our management processes fell short, and for this we apologise.

“We are committed to a culture of openness and trust and will implement the review’s recommendations to make sure that any time a concern is raised, it is addressed promptly, thoroughly and fairly.”

The spokesperson added that the company recognised that there had been a “lack of clarity” around NDAs and confirmed “that no one at ITN will have confidentiality provisions imposed upon them which would prevent them from talking freely about their experiences working at the organisation”. Furthermore, any confidentiality clauses would “only apply to any financial settlement amount and commercially sensitive matters”.