A fixture on our screens for more than 20 years, Ruth Langsford’s warmth and humour have made her one of Britain’s best-loved celebrities. Along with her husband, Eamonn Holmes, she is one half of a presenting partnership we’ve all come to think of as friends.
Starting her career in local TV, Ruth is now the longest-serving female presenter on ITV’s flagship daytime programme This Morning, as well as an anchor on chat show Loose Women. And looking at those widely publicised throwback snaps of herself as a permed newbie with a clipped accent, she’s rightly pleased with how far she’s come.
“I’m very proud,” she tells us. “That young girl – look at her now. She’s 60, she’s still on the telly and still loves it. I feel really lucky.”
Ruth relishes her work, perhaps partly because she has faced so much personal tragedy. She lost her beloved dad, Dennis, to Alzheimer’s in 2012 and her sister, Julia, tragically took her own life last June.
She’s very close to her mum Joan, but sadly Ruth hasn’t been able to hug her during the pandemic as she lives in assisted accommodation. “We have a Perspex screen between us and I have to wear a mask, gloves and an apron,” the TV presenter reveals. “She’s been amazing, but she’s of that wartime generation. She’s 88, she’s very stoic about it all. But I do miss her.”
Still, Ruth is very much of the glass half-full persuasion and she’s as chatty as you’d expect when she calls us bang on time for a catch-up to talk all things life, love and her latest clothing range with QVC, which, she assures us, is her best yet.
Before we get into hemlines and fabrics, though, we’re keen to grill Ruth on those early clips of herself and a teenage Eamonn reading the news – and we’re intrigued to know if she would’ve had the hots for him then. “Absolutely,” she replies. “I’m looking at a picture of him on my desk here, looking all smouldery in a dinner suit. I can’t remember what it was taken for but I saw the picture and was like, ‘I want that photo. You look gorgeous.’ I definitely would’ve fancied him if I’d met him at that age and he says the same about me,” she adds. “I still do.”
It was 1997 when the two of them did come face-to-face, introduced by a mutual friend. They went on to have their son, Jack, in 2002 and were married in 2010.
Landing the Friday slot on This Morning in 2006, Ruth and Eamonn are now a presenting power couple – but it’s all down to hard graft.
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