Eamonn Holmes claimed he could move back to Northern Ireland and marry a ‘local girl’ while detailing how he may ‘never get out’ of his wheelchair in resurfaced interview after shock split from Ruth Langsford
Eamonn Holmes revealed he could one day move back to Northern Ireland and marry a ‘local girl’ in a resurfaced interview after his split from Ruth Langsford.
The GB News host, 64, has endured a difficult period in recent years that has seen him lose his mother, job, his beloved Belfast home, and now his wife Ruth.
Speaking on NVTV’s Conversations With Gerry Kelly in November, Eamonn also spoke movingly about his three years from hell and admitted he may always be in a wheelchair.
The presenter told how his home will always be in Belfast and he may move back to Northern Ireland one day.
He said: ‘Ruth wouldn’t come back to Northern Ireland. Yes, because of her family and also because she’s English and she sees life around London and things, whereas I can’t stand London. So we have a different outlook on things like that.’
Eamonn Holmes revealed he could one day move back to Northern Ireland and marry a ‘local girl’ in a resurfaced interview after his split from Ruth Langsford
Eamonn underwent back surgery last year to help relieve his chronic pain symptoms but has been left using a wheelchair after the operation went ‘wrong’
The GB News host has endured a difficult period in recent years that has seen him lose his mother, job, his beloved Belfast home, and now his wife Ruth Langsford (pictured in 2022)
Eamonn then thought about a future without his wife as he added: ‘Maybe Ruth will be run over by a bus or something, who knows?
‘If I get another wife I might come back, get a local girl. That’s awful talking about Ruth being run over by a bus, that’s awful.’
In 2016, Eamonn underwent a double-hip replacement operation lasting three-and-a-quarter hours after living with acute pain for many years.
The TV presenter then had back surgery last year to help relieve the symptoms but has been left using a wheelchair after the operation went ‘wrong’.
Eamonn said: ‘You couldn’t make it up. It’s as if somebody is up there playing with my life.
‘In the past year, I’ve had an operation on my back, which has gone wrong, which has confined me to wheelchair. I have had my mother dying, and I couldn’t go to her funeral.’
Eamonn has also endured financial woes and earlier this year revealed he had to sell his beloved house in east Belfast to pay off a huge bill after a £250,000 tax battle with HMRC.
He said: ‘I’ve had the court case going against me twice for the tax thing. Honestly, Gerry, you could not make it up. There was a fall which broke my shoulder as well.’
Host Gerry asked if Eamonn would always be ‘confined to his wheelchair, to which he replied: ‘I would like to think that at some stage in my life I will get out of the wheelchair, but it is strange that you know a year’s past, and you think, I’ve tried every treatment, believe me, and you go, “maybe I’ll never get out of this wheelchair.” That’s a harsh reality to face.’
Eamonn told how he found solace in receiving messages on X/Twitter from ‘thousands of people’ who are also suffering with chronic pain.
He said: ‘Honestly, I wouldn’t care what I had. When people say, your health is your wealth, it is absolutely, and there are people who are worse off than me.
‘I had a terrible situation where I had back pain, and the country has an epidemic of chronic pain, there’s no doubt. I would lie in bed at night absolutely not being able to sleep and tweet, “having a bad night tonight, anyone else not able to sleep?”
Eamonn admitted: ‘I’ve tried every treatment, believe me, and you go, maybe I’ll never get out of this wheelchair. And that’s a harsh reality to face’
Speaking on NVTV’s Conversations With Gerry Kelly in November, Eamonn also told how he may move back to his native Northern Ireland if he gets ‘another wife’
Eamonn said: ‘Ruth wouldn’t come back to Northern Ireland. Yes, because of her family and also because she’s English and she sees life around London and things, whereas I can’t stand London’ (pictured in 2009)
‘There’s thousands of people in terrible pain, on painkillers. I had this operation and I was warned it could go wrong.
‘The good news is, the pain is gone, the bad news is, you can’t walk. To get a night’s sleep is amazing and to be able to do the job I do on GB News is amazing because I’m behind a desk.’
Eamonn also revealed he is now unable to dress himself and has a carer come around to his house in the mornings to help.
It comes after Eamonn and Ruth revealed they are headed for divorce after work commitments ‘took their marriage in different directions’.
The couple tied the knot in 2010 after dating for 13 years – and said that despite their separation, they are ‘determined to stay friends’.
In the wake of the shocking news, Eamonn returned to work at GB News and broke his silence on the divorce.
Prior to his shock split, Eamonn has had a tough few years as he lost family members, his home and struggled with crippling health conditions.
Eamonn announced that his beloved mother Josie had sadly died at the age of 93 in November 2022.
He took to Instagram to announce the difficult news as he shared a sweet snap of her stood at her front door.
He penned a loving caption with his post in which he said that she was ‘reunited with daddy now’.
He said in full: ‘My 4 amazing brothers and I said Goodbye for the last time to our beautiful Mum Josie this afternoon. She’s at last reunited with Daddy now. That is our only consolation.
‘We loved and will miss her so much. Every time I visited her she came to the door to bless me with Holy Water and Wave goodbye. Now sadly it is Goodbye Mummy.’
Her funeral was held at St Patrick’s Church in Belfast and was attended by her friends and family, however Eamonn was unable to attend her funeral due to ‘health reasons’.
Eamonn’s father Leonard died following a heart attack over 30 years ago.
Over the years, Eamonn has been incredibly open about his own crippling health conditions.
Eamonn announced that his beloved mother Josie had sadly died at the age of 93 in November 2022
Eamonn broke down in tears as he paid tribute to his late father, 31 years after his untimely death
Eamonn with his father Leonard and mother Josephine and two of his brothers in an old family picture
In addition to his back issues, he also detailed his battle with shingles and how he was struck with the virus on his son Declan’s wedding day.
During an appearance on Loose Women in September 2021, he spoke about his health battle which left him unable to work on This Morning three years ago.
He also shared images of his puffy face covered in marks and scabs during his battle.
Shingles is a viral rash caused by varicella zoster virus, the virus which causes chickenpox, being reactivated. In the UK, 90 per cent of adults have had chickenpox, so will have this virus lying dormant in their nervous systems.
His years of chronic back pain started in spring 2021 – which came completely out of nowhere.
The pain become so severe that it left Eamonn reliant on a walking stick, but soon found out the root cause.
He eventually discovered it was three slipped discs that affected the movement of his right leg.
In September 2022, Eamonn was forced to step away from his GB news show as he underwent vital back surgery to aid his chronic back pain.
Following his surgery, he revealed that despite physiotherapy, he continues to find his lack of mobility stops him from doing simple things and is forced to rely on others, which he described as ‘soul destroying’.
His spinal surgery left him with a weakened left leg, too, and just over two weeks into his recovery from the operation, Eamonn fell backwards down 18 stairs at the Weybridge home, hitting the stone floor at the bottom.
Over the years, Eamonn has been incredibly open about his own crippling health conditions
He underwent spinal surgery in 2022 following years of chronic back pain and previously had a double-hip replacement in 2016
He eventually discovered it was three slipped discs that affected the movement of his right leg
The horrific accident could easily have killed him. Instead, he emerged with a broken shoulder, and his legs further weakened.
The former This Morning host admitted at the time that fracturing his shoulder in a fall is a ‘massive setback’.
A year after his spinal surgery, Eamonn underwent a spine and neck stretching procedure in September 2023 after admitting he ‘couldn’t walk’.
Eamonn admitted he ‘hadn’t recovered’ from his back surgery, confessing: ‘I can’t run, I can’t walk, I can’t do anything except watch TV and eat.’
He explained: ‘I just got problems last year in my back, which I haven’t recovered from. It’s not good, it’s not a good recipe I have to say.’
Ruth recently revealed she fears Eamonn ‘might never be 100 per cent right’.
The Loose Women presenter said she ‘lives in hope’ that his mobility will improve.
Speaking to Woman’s Weekly, Ruth said: ‘I don’t know how much Eamonn’s mobility will improve. We live in hope.
‘He does the physio, but there might have to be some acceptance that this might never be 100% right. With any care situation – and there are millions of carers in this country – it isn’t always easy. It’s testing but we manage as a family.’
Ruth added: ‘I look at Eamonn, who’s had his health and back problems, and it makes you realise how important your health is.’
The former This Morning host admitted at the time that fracturing his shoulder in a fall is a ‘massive setback’
A year after his spinal surgery, Eamonn underwent a spine and neck stretching procedure in September 2023 after admitting he ‘couldn’t walk’
He has ongoing daily physio sessions and either uses a cane or wheelchair to get about, with the support of his wife Ruth
Earlier this year, Eamonn revealed he had to sell his beloved house in east Belfast to pay off a huge bill after a £250,000 tax battle with HMRC.
The TV presenter admitted he feels ‘bitter’ about having to sell his house after losing two appeals against HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which set him back ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees’.
Speaking in his interview with Gerry Kelly, Eamonn claimed tax officials ruled he was a staff member with broadcasters rather than freelance.
They allegedly asked for 10 years of retrospective tax and national insurance payments from him.
He claims he never received holiday or sick pay, though he said he wasn’t looking for sympathy. ‘It’s like they have taken away everything I ever worked for,’ he tells the show on NVTV.
In response Eamonn’s tax battle, a HMRC spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We take the wellbeing of all taxpayers seriously and do everything we can for those who engage with us to get their tax affairs in order, including by offering affordable payment plans.’
And now, after losing his mother, jobs and his home, Eamonn has lost his supportive wife Ruth.
It brings to an end one of Britain’s best known TV power couples after 27 years together, 14 of which were spent in wedlock.
They are parents to son Jack, 22, while Eamonn also has sons Declan, 35, Niall, 31, and daughter Rebecca, 33, from his previous marriage.
Eamonn used his presenting slot on GB News’s breakfast programme to break his silence over his divorce from wife Ruth on Tuesday.
Eamonn had posted on Instagram about the FA Cup over the weekend following the issuing of the statement – but his comments on GB News’ breakfast programme on Tuesday are his first words issued publicly on the split since.
Accompanied by co-host Isabel Webster, who smiled and nodded supportively as he spoke, the TV veteran thanked viewers for the ‘support’ they had shown him since the weekend.
He said: ‘Just before we move on we’d just like to thank people for your support for Ruth and I over the last few days as to the news of our separation.
‘Your support for both of us is very much appreciated.’
Eamonn and Ruth hosted This Morning together for 14 years, and were a fixture on the show both on Fridays and during the school holidays (pictured in 2007)
Eamonn and Ruth said in Saturday’s statement they were ‘determined to stay friends’ after spending most of their professional lives together.
However, sources say Ruth ‘orchestrated’ the statement, which Eamonn refused to sign off on prior to its release.
Sources told Mail+ that Eamonn is devastated about the split and that the break-up has ‘very much been orchestrated by Ruth’.
Eamonn reportedly told friends that he ‘didn’t want to get involved’ and that ‘Ruth can do what she wants but keep me out of it’.
Fans of the pair – a familiar sight on This Morning for 15 years – have been poring over past remarks they have made on relationships, including on couples who stay friends after breaking up.
During an interview on TalkTV during the Covid-19 lockdown, Eamonn explained he and Ruth were struggling with not having their own space.
He said: ‘Although we live together, we’re not really together, we don’t watch the same TV, Ruth likes her own space. When we do This Morning it’s a rare time we actually interrelate.’
Ruth added: ‘That’s why we’ve been together 24 years, because we aren’t actually together a lot.’
Elsewhere in another resurfaced clip, Eamonn and Ruth discussed staying friends with an ex.
The former This Morning hosts discussed whether they could stay friends with a former partner in a discussion on the popular ITV daytime show back in a clip from 2018.
They were joined by Anthea Turner and journalist Nilufer Atik.
Eamonn said on the topic: ‘It is easier to stay friends.’
While Ruth had a different opinion, saying: ‘Why would you need to stay friends, you aren’t with them anymore, you don’t need to be friends.
‘My thing is you weren’t just friends, you were married or had a relationship.’
The TV couple, who friends say were ‘as close to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan as you could get’, had sparked rumours of a split after not appearing on each other’s Instagram accounts for months.
They first met in through a mutual friend, GMTV star Sally Meen, while Eamonn was also on the show in 1997.
Two years later, he had split from his first wife Gabrielle Holmes, the mother of his three eldest children.
And despite the pair feeling an instant connection, he ensured it was the nation’s best-kept secret, as he did not publicly confess his love for Ruth for two years.
Eamonn (pictured with GB News co-host Isabel Webster) broke his silence on his separation from Ruth on Tuesday
A spokesperson for the couple said: ‘Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing’
Eamonn even refused to hold her hand in public or attend events together for the first few years of their relationship in a bid to stay respectful to his ex of nearly 20 years.
They eventually tied the knot in 2010 after 13 years together, in a lavish ceremony at the grand 19th century Hampshire hotel, The Elvetham.
Among those on the guestlist were TV presenters Gloria Hunniford and Jeremy Kyle, EastEnders actress Zoe Lucker and former champion boxer Barry McGuigan.
And while they had shared a lavish £3.2million mansion in Surrey, Eamonn is believed to have moved out before the break-up was announced.
Eamonn and Ruth left This Morning in 2021 after their contract lapsed and were replaced by Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond.
The duo have also presented a number of other shows together including How The Other Half Lives, Do The Right Thing With Eamonn And Ruth and Eamonn And Ruth’s 7 Year Itch.
Holmes, who has also fronted coverage on GMTV and Sky News’ Sunrise, launched Breakfast With Eamonn and Isabel on GB News in January 2022.
Langsford regularly presents Loose Women, having begun on the show in the 1990s.
