Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway opened up on Thursday about the impact of a "hurtful" AI hoax, which circulated false claims about her and her family.
Ms Garraway, who lost her husband Derek Draper following a battle with Covid-19 in 2024, talked about the false social media reports on today's edition of the ITV show she was presenting alongside Richard Madeley.
Chatting to internet personality Gareth Wyn Jones about being the victim of a sextortion blackmail, Ms Garraway shared her own experience.
"About a year ago, almost to the day of Derek passing, AI was even used to create a photo of me, actually, with an unidentified man, which has prompted rumours of a new relationship," she recalled.
Kate Garraway shared her 'hurtful' experience with fake AI stories
|ITV
The mother-of-two continued: "It's completely untrue, the picture is fabricated. I'll tell you the impact of that in a moment.
"I don't do Facebook, there a lots of fake Facebook Kate Garraway accounts, they were appearing almost as a celebration account for me.
"I only became aware when people came up to me on the street, and said, 'I'm so pleased you've found love.'
'"Now, I didn't react badly at that point. I thought it was sweet that they cared and they were going through grief themselves, and we had lovely conversations.
Derek Draper died in January 2024
|ITV
"But the turning point was towards the end of last year when these AI bot sites, pretending to be news sites, were doing whole things about how my son was destroying the relationship because of his selfishness, missing his dad, and I thought this is awful because his teachers could be reading this.
"Trusting this news source, another reason to have a trusted source like Good Morning Britain... And his friends might read it."
She added: "Typical parent, you take it yourself, but don't like it when it's your kid."
She detailed how even her co-star Ranvir Singh's friends had been "fooled" by the fake story.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Kate Garraway talked about how the AI hoax had targeted her young son, Billy
|GETTY
Mr Madeley asked: "You didn't know whether to mention anything?"
"Well I thought Kate would have told me. It was confusing to me," Ms Singh replied.
"It's been going on for a year now," Ms Garraway explained.
Ms Garraway also addressed the rumours on social media earlier this week. Sharing pictures on her Instagram Story, she penned: "Very excited to see my 'new boyfriend' revealed in @thesun today - isn't he #dreamy?!!"
Kate Garraway explained how people close to her had fallen for the fake AI story
|ITV
She went on to add: "Seriously though, thank you @clemmiemoodie for highlighting this, for months now people (even those who know me really well) have been asking me about stuff out there that is totally fake.
"On one level, it's really sweet that people care about my life, but very confusing and in some cases, hurtful for the kids when it's #fakenews."
Mr Draper died in January 2024 after a lengthy medical battle following complications from Covid, which he caught in March 2020.
The couple share two children, Darcy, 19, and Billy, 16.