The battle lines being drawn in Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford‘s divorce became obvious at a key moment this week.
On Wednesday morning Ruth was seen looking bubbly as she left her hairdresser, close to the estranged couple’s £3.2million marital home in Surrey. With a glamorous ‘do’, she stopped to smile for the paparazzi on her way to her lucrative job at shopping channel QVC. I’m told she was ‘very chirpy’.
Meanwhile, a few miles away, Eamonn was described as having ‘lost his mojo’ at GB News HQ in Paddington, West London, where he presents the breakfast show.
Colleagues are said to have been ‘concerned’ for him as they watched him mope around the studios. Indeed, following his three-hour slot, he was seen being driven away in a Range Rover looking downcast.
Unlike Ruth, 64, there were no smiles, no acknowledgement of the cameras. ‘He just wanted to get home,’ says a colleague. It is unclear where ‘home’ is or if he has moved out of the couple’s Weybridge mansion.
Ruth looked chirpy on Wednesday morning as she left her hairdresser close to the estranged couple’s £3.2million marital home in Surrey
Following his three-hour slot on the GB News breakfast show on Wednesday, Eamonn Holmes was driven away in a Range Rover looking downcast
It’s now a week since Ruth’s publicist revealed, out of the blue, that the couple were planning to divorce after 27 years together and 14 years of marriage.
Long believed to be one of the most solid partnerships in showbusiness, it left fans stunned. But I can reveal that rumours the relationship was in trouble had been circulating around the TV industry for months.
And while Eamonn, also 64, is said to be devastated and against ending their marriage, he has another reason to feel irked. Those close to the star point out that if it hadn’t been for him, Ruth might not have gone on to forge a successful career, sharing the daytime sofa with him on ITV’s This Morning, then becoming a key figure on the channel’s lunchtime panel show Loose Women.
For Ruth, who met Eamonn when she was a little known TV presenter in 1997, being the second Mrs Holmes has been fruitful, to say the least. When they got together, he was riding high as the very well paid — and very high profile — anchor of ITV’s breakfast programme, GMTV.
Ruth, meanwhile, had just left ITV’s regional news bulletins in Plymouth and was jobbing around awaiting her big TV break. It came when she met the smooth-talking Northern Irishman after they were introduced by mutual friends. He’d split from his first wife, Gabrielle, with whom he has three children, two years earlier.
Certainly, her association with the undisputed king of daytime TV seems to have propelled Ruth into more influential circles. She was snapped up by talent agency YMU, which also represents Ant and Dec and Claudia Winkleman.
In 1999, Ruth joined Loose Women, where she remains. But it was at the end of 2006 that ITV bosses had a brainwave: to put Ruth and Eamonn on the This Morning sofa. Although the couple were yet to marry — they did so in 2010 — bosses realised they were looking at a potentially golden Mr and Mrs double act.
Eamonn had already quit GMTV, the breakfast show he’d hosted alongside Anthea Turner and latterly Fiona Phillips, in 2005 and was presenting an early morning programme on Sky News.
Eamonn, 64, is wheeled about by his physiotherapist in March as he makes his way to a medical appointment
Eamonn suffers crippling pain after back and shoulder surgery and is forced to endure hours of gruelling physio each week. He is now reduced to walking with a stick or using a wheelchair
They were given the Friday slot when Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were off, and also presented during the school holidays. While Phil and Holly were in their heyday for much of this time, ITV bosses secretly confided that they knew the audiences preferred Ruth and Eamonn.
An employee at the network tells me: ‘They did a few shows and went down a treat. The viewers loved them. They were about as normal as you could get for a famous couple. They bickered, they lived their lives out in front of the cameras. It was authentic.
‘But what cannot be ignored is that Eamonn made Ruth, pure and simple. He had been a coveted and decorated broadcaster for so many years. Of course, he gave her a leg up.’
Their fortunes have certainly swapped. It is undeniable that she has leapfrogged her husband, with whom she has a son of 22. One source familiar with the couple said: ‘Ruth has come out of this relationship stronger. She has played a blinder with her career.’
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Eamonn may not be able to go on working for as long as his soon-to-be ex-wife. After a number of health setbacks in recent years, including a horrific fall at home in 2022, Eamonn has been seen in a wheelchair.
So what does that mean for the divorce? ‘It could get nasty,’ says a friend of Eamonn’s. ‘To think that they would go from appearing so happy on TV, to potentially going to war over money is not what their viewers expected.
It was revealed last week that TV’s golden couple Eamonn and Ruth were planning to divorce after 27 years together and 14 years of marriage
Eamonn and Ruth tied the knot in 2010, after 13 years together, in a lavish ceremony at grand 19th century Hampshire hotel The Elvetham
‘He made her. Would she be earning the huge amount of money she does if they had never met? No. Surely he would have an argument that, when it comes to money being divided, this is taken into consideration.’
They developed a strong brand — even after they were unceremoniously booted off This Morning in 2021, and replaced by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary. The axe came after a series of gaffes on air by Eamonn including one when, on live TV, he cast doubt on media outlets that debunked the myth that 5G wireless technology spread coronavirus.
It was said to have put Ruth, still very much ensconced on the Loose Women panel, in an incredibly awkward position with ITV and piled yet more strain on their relationship.
Eamonn was in no mood for shutting up, however. He took a series of swipes at the broadcaster during interviews, accusing channel heads of hypocrisy and describing those who run the show as ‘middle-aged white managers’.
He told the Mail’s Weekend magazine in 2022: ‘When are they going to start being diverse with their management? The diversity is only on screen. It’s hypocritical.’
A friend of Ruth’s said: ‘The whole thing was pretty embarrassing for her. The fall-out with ITV bosses proved hugely awkward for Ruth, who remained an employee with her role on Loose Women and other shows.
‘But there was Eamonn going around slagging them off… He maintains he was sacked because he is an older white man but Ruth was still very much in demand there. You can understand how that would cause friction.’
After leaving This Morning, Ruth and Eamonn signed a series of lucrative advertising deals to front campaigns aimed at the over-55s, promoting everything from blood circulation boosters to equity release plans and bingo games.
Again, close friends of Eamonn have been quick to point out that he was fundamental in creating their brand. What he wasn’t able to control, however, was his recent spell of bad health — a double hip replacement in 2016 was followed by three slipped discs requiring back surgery. To cap this, in 2022, he fell down the stairs, injuring his shoulder. Ruth revealed recently that at times she’d felt more like a carer than a wife.
Another source of marital strife has been the issue of Eamonn’s tax bill — a dark cloud that has been hanging over the couple for more than five years. In January, he revealed he had been forced to sell his beloved house in his hometown of Belfast after a £250,000 tax battle with HMRC.
He had spent more than five years at war with the agency after they ruled he was a staff member not a freelancer. He was then allegedly asked for ten years of retrospective tax and national insurance payments. Everything was piling up, say insiders and ‘something had to give’.
Even as the divorce was announced last weekend, I’m told, Eamonn was against making the news public after months of trying to save his marriage.
Ruth, though, was determined to walk away. Far from being a joint effort, the statement was arranged by Ruth, with Eamonn refusing to play any part in it. He reportedly told friends he ‘didn’t want to get involved’.
For her part, the future at ITV looks bright. She didn’t appear on Loose Women this week but intends to return. One source said: ‘This split is only going to add to Ruth’s story, add to her brand. Even in their separation, Ruth will benefit.’ No wonder Eamonn is looking so downbeat.