EAMONN Holmes moved out of the mansion he shared with wife Ruth Langsford before their shock divorce announcement today.
The popular presenter, 64, left the telly couple’s home only recently for a property nearby.
Revealing their split after 14 years in an exclusive statement to The Sun on Sunday, their spokesperson said: “Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing.”
Sources said their work had taken them in different directions but they were determined to stay friends and keep things amicable.
Eamonn planned to talk about the split on his GB News breakfast show on Monday.
A source said: “Eamonn is always frank on camera and knows it will be odd for him to discuss the day’s news without mentioning his split so he’ll say a few words.
“He is putting on a brave face and will be the true professional he always is. Focusing on work will be a welcome distraction.”
He and Ruth, both 64 and based in Weybridge, Surrey, wed in 2010.
Tellingly, they hadn’t been pictured out together since The Television and Radio Industries Club awards in 2022.
Pals told how the couple drifted apart in recent months, although Ruth recently visited him when he had a spell in hospital.
She has confided to her closest friends that there is no way back for the marriage.
Despite the break-up, Ruth has been helping to nurse Eamonn back to health following a medical scare at the start of the month.
She visited him in hospital when back issues forced him off air.
Just a few days ago Loose Women host Ruth told fans: “I look at Eamonn, who has had his back problems, and it makes you realise how important your health is. 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 per cent right.”
Ruth, who presented This Morning on ITV1 with her hubby for 15 years, told how more than a year ago Eamonn had a back operation which went wrong, confining him to a wheelchair.
At one point, he fell and broke his shoulder. Giving no hint to the fractures in their relationship, she added: “It’s testing, but we manage as a family.”
Earlier this month, Eamonn reposted a snap on Instagram of him and Ruth in happier times. It had previously been shared by a photographer who called them “The best in the business”.
Eamonn’s repost was the first time he had shared a picture of himself with Ruth for weeks.
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford statement in full
The couple announced their intention to divorce via a spokesperson in a short statement to The Sun on Sunday: “Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing.”
Today neither posted anything about the split on their social media — only confirming it in the brief statement released exclusively to The Sun on Sunday.
After his footie team Manchester United won today’s FA Cup Final 2-1 against Manchester City, Eamonn wrote: “My God, what a Cup Final, what a result”, adding an image of him with ex-Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Eamonn married first wife Gabrielle in 1985. The couple have grown-up kids Declan, Rebecca and Niall but separated in 1994.
He met Ruth in 1997 when they were introduced by mutual friends.
They dated for over a decade before he proposed. In 2002, Ruth gave birth to their son, Jack.
Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing
Spokesperson for the couple
The couple started hosting ITV’s This Morning together in 2006, continuing to 2021.
They finally got married at Elvetham Hall in Hampshire in 2010 and sold the rights to Hello! magazine.
Fans began speculating about the relationship earlier this month after Eamonn revealed he had “a lot to think about…. one of those days” — posting it on his Instagram next to a black-and-white picture of himself looking pensive.
Fans also questioned Ruth’s whereabouts after Eamonn shared a picture from the christening of his son Declan’s daughter.
The post led followers to wonder if Ruth joined him at the family event in Northern Ireland.
One asked: “Where is your wife, Eamonn Holmes?”
It emerged she spent the day in Cobham, Surrey, enjoying an Easter egg hunt followed by a pub lunch with friends.
Eamonn and Ruth split - My View
By Showbiz Editor Hannah Hope
For many years Eamonn and Ruth were the mum and dad of morning TV, smiling into millions of people;s living rooms, like actual family members.
Having sat with them on This Morning sofa and witnessed their warm in-jokes and intimate, jovial bickering it was clear to see the bond, love and respect they had together and it made magic telly.
So it will come as a sad shock to many that the popular couple have split and have been quietly planning a divorce behind the scenes.
It’s been a tumultuous few years since I revealed, back in 2020, ITV had axed them from This Morning, ending their husband-and-wife on-screen reign and Eamonn has been struggling with his health and mobility.
I’m sure fans will flood them with support as they navigate these difficult next steps and move on with their lives separately.
On a Loose Women chat last month, Ruth confessed it wouldn’t bother her as much if Eamonn left her for a 25-year-old woman, but it would sting if it was someone similar to their ages.
She told the panel: “See I think, people go, ‘Oh, you’d hate it if you were dumped for a younger woman’.
“I go, ‘No, I would hate it because…; then I could do the whole ‘Oh, Eamonn is such a cliché, he’s going with a 25-year-old, how sad.’
“But then I think, ‘No, the worst thing for me is if he went off with someone the same age’.
“I think that is harder than being dumped for someone younger. That’s my worst fear.”
In a poignant move, Ruth recently commented on her long-lasting marriage, musing: “I think always respect, mutual respect.
“And we laugh a lot. I think love and lust and everything’s wonderful at the start of a relationship.
“But you’ve got to have that connection as friends where you feel comfortable with each other.”
She added: “I read recently that Camilla said that she and Charles often sit in companionable silence in the same room just reading their books.
“Eamonn and I talk a lot and I love his company.
“But also on a Sunday morning, we can just be sitting reading the papers not talking to each other but not feeling awkward.”
Ruth also told how her husband had been living with chronic back pain since 2021.
She shared: “With any care situation — and there are millions of carers in this country — it isn’t always easy.
“But if something happens to somebody you love, you help them as much as you can. It’s testing but we manage as a family.”
Eamonn opened up further on his health battle, telling of his upset after he couldn’t attend his mother Josie’s funeral.
He said: “It is as if somebody up there is playing with my life.
“In the past year I’ve had an operation on my back which went wrong and has confined me to a wheelchair.
“I’ve fallen and broken my shoulder. Honestly you could not make it up.”
Last time TV golden couple were seen together
One of the most clear signs Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were heading for divorce was that neither of them posting with each other on social media, or appearing at events together in over two years.
Their last social media post where they were seen together was in July 2022, with Ruth and Eamonn playing out a skit to promote her Feeling Fabulous event.
Ruth is seen creating a checklist for everything she needs before the event, before Eamonn pops up and asks, “Do you think you’re forgetting something? Or some one? Like, me?”
“You want to come?” she asks, before adding, “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“I think they’ll want to see me more than that Anton [Du Beke] and that Rylan [Clark],” he responds.
While this is the last time they were seen on camera together, in September 2023 they were still together, with Eamonn filming Ruth steaming her face and asking her “What are you doing?”
Ruth, who was under the weather, wrote alongside the clip: “So day 3 of antibiotics and the doctor told me to steam twice a day….I try to do this in peace but @eamonnholmes decided to watch and offer helpful advice this morning!”
