Ruth Langsford has a reputation as a stoic and bright soul – on and off television. In the devastating months following her sister’s suicide in 2019, viewers wouldn’t know from her on-screen actions that she wept with grief every morning before entering ITV’s Loose Women daytime show.
It’s a similar story in the long and bitter fallout from her separation from husband Eamonn Holmes, which was announced in May this year.
Ruth has said nothing in public and is determined to continue ‘taking the high road’ – although I hear that privately she is ‘deeply devastated’ by what happened.
Who doesn’t? After a 28-year relationship and 14-year marriage – and raising his beloved son, Jack, 22 – his wife has taken up with a blonde who is young enough to be Ruth’s daughter.
Katie Alexander, 42, walks alongside Eamonn Holmes, 64, who has suffered back problems in recent years and uses a mobility scooter.
A couple’s relationship therapy helps a TV presenter with a mobility scooter
Veteran TV presenter, 64, explores the Med with his new girlfriend Katie Alexander, 42, a ‘relationship therapist’ from Yorkshire whom he met on social media, while they were still married to someone else.
Eamonn and Katie, who were pictured together while taking part in a cruise in Barcelona at the weekend, make an unusual couple. After a second hip replacement, back surgery and a scary fall down the stairs of an old house in Surrey in 2022, Eamonn has serious mobility problems; unable to walk without help.
Divorced Katie, who wore Zara high heels as she pushed Holmes’ wheelchair, has a teenage son and is 22.
So who is Eamonn’s new love interest?
Katie Alexander has an interesting personal life, including relationships with two men. Born Katie Robshaw, she was 19 and working as a shop assistant when she met trainer driver Michael Devine, who was 40. They were in a relationship for five years and have a son named Ben, who is now 22 years old.
Mr Devine, now 81, said: “We’ve been separated for years but I see my son regularly, maybe once a week.
‘I see Katie now and again, but she’s in London. No hard feelings towards Katie, she is a wonderful woman. I wish him well. Absolutely brilliant, that’s Katie.’
After splitting from Devine, Katie opened the Barca cafe in Dewsbury, which went out of business in 2013. By this time, she was married to bar owner George Alexander and had a daughter in 2010 and a son in 2011, before separating in 2022. Alexander said that he felt he was the ‘luckiest man ever’ when she agreed to be his wife.
George Alexander, too, was unlucky in business. His cocktail bar company, 9 5 8, was dissolved in 2022 and Artisan Bar Northern was dissolved in February last year. The cleaning company was liquidated by a compulsory strike last year, as was a fourth company, Izzyroc Ltd.
“I have a lot of sympathy for Ruth,” George, 53, said. ‘He was heartbroken when his marriage to Katie ended. It took a few years to recover. I understand Ruth’s confusion. He will go through what I do after our marriage ends. Katie has a heart, so she’ll feel bad for Ruth.’
George confirmed that Eamonn and Katie met on social media. “He’s not swooning over her like George Clooney, but he likes her on social media, and one day he says he’ll get a reply from her,” she said.
‘He had commented on one of the posts and Eamonn got in touch. I have to admit I laughed.’
George said they split amicably and he only found out that Katie, now working as a therapist, had an affair with Eamonn after the marriage ended. He said: ‘I was shocked. Katie will go and visit him. It’s a regular pattern.’
It was a very different story – at least not publicly – when Ruth and Eamonn broke up in May. Reports confidently claim that Ruth who wants out of their marriage and Eamonn were ‘blindsided’ by the decision.
Some say that Ruth, also 64, but healthier than Eamonn, does not want to take care of her sick husband.
Holmes and his wife Ruth, also 64, announced plans to divorce after 14 years of marriage
The couple, who met on social media, went on a trip together
At the TRIC (Television and Radio Industries Club) awards in June, Eamonn appealed for sympathy, saying his health had deteriorated and he felt ‘on borrowed time’.
He joked to the audience that he already had a knife in his back – surgery – so why not take one more? The implication is that Ruth, his estranged wife, has broken him.
What could he mean? According to a former colleague: ‘All this proves is that no one feels sorrier for Eamonn Holmes than Eamonn Holmes.’
But, because of that comment, Ruth’s idea had gotten away from her in her time of need. They move to a flat near Kingston, while Ruth stays at home, with her dog, Maggie.
Ruth received heavy criticism for ‘leaving Eamonn’ but said nothing.
(He still has no intention of speaking.)
But with Eamonn soaking up the sunshine in the Med with his new girlfriend, friends are rallying to defend him.
A number say that she and Eamonn navigate the path to separation, with both sides fully agreeing that the marriage is over. That happened quietly at home for a few weeks in May.
His physical health was not part of the decision. Ruth was, by all accounts, a devoted partner in sickness and in health, who helped him in every way with care after that fall. ‘Rut has devoted herself to Eamonn and helped and cared for him,’ I said.
However, what caused the rift was Ruth – described as ‘very dignified’ and ‘classy’ – discovering her husband’s contact with Ms Alexander. Some reports suggest that he found the message ‘on his laptop’.
It makes staying in marriage an intolerable prospect for him and it is noted, at this distance, that the statement confirming the separation is very chilly.
Not for those who reach the ‘end of the rainbow’ like Zoe Ball did with DJ Fatboy Slim, or have nothing to do with Gwynnie’s grateful style, or really be nostalgic and nostalgic. However, the marriage was announced in the most unemotional way possible. The statement simply read: ‘Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing’.
Eamonn’s relationship with Katie had started nine years before he split from Ruth, with an exchange on Twitter (now X) in 2015, when Ms Alexander commented on one of Eamonn’s posts and she replied.
It is unclear when this exchange developed into a friendship, but reports suggest that Ruth discovered that, in the year leading up to the split, Eamonn had showered Katie with gifts, including accompanying her to a safari park with their children. giving away tickets to Beyonce’s concert.
Last October, eight months before his split from Ruth, Eamonn traveled to Yorkshire to host a charity event linked to Katie’s work. Sufficient effort for people with poor health.
And Ms Alexander’s ex-husband George has suggested that he and Eamonn ‘met’ regularly at some point after his marriage to Katie ended in 2022. Some reports even say they have a habit of staying at hotels in Surrey. ten minutes away from the Holmes-Langsford home in Weybridge before the couple announced their separation.
Ruth’s friends don’t know anything – but say that Ruth has been through hell because of the attention her estranged husband and new boyfriend have. Each is described or discussed as something as a source of pain. Heartbroken Ruth, still wearing her wedding ring.
As the dust now settles, it seems significant that Eamonn fell into the habit of taking ‘funny’ potshots at his wife in the air during the last few years of their marriage.
His friends didn’t think the banter was very funny – and at the same time, there were some arguments that made it uncomfortable to watch. During a phone call about his loved one’s unreasonable behaviour, Eamonn said Ruth was always forgetting her wallet and making him ‘pay for everything’. Ruth said: ‘It’s not funny, and you know it’s not true.’
Ms Alexander has previously been married twice and has three children
Holmes hails a cab in Barcelona before his ship departs
Then there was the row, four years ago, about whether the vegetable was a swede or a turnip – and Eamonn was happy to get the ‘RuthisWrong’ hashtag trending on Twitter, saying: ‘Thanks for getting #RuthisWrong trending on Twitter re Turnips v Swedes. . . although hashing may apply to many other opinions!’
It makes friends cringe – and wonder why Eamonn seems so keen to put his wife down. Ruth faithfully dismissed it as a joke.
But there seems to be a lot of anger when, on the phone during lockdown, Ruth thinks about presenting a show from home with Eamonn and it’s called Home with Holmes. Eamonn snapped: ‘Now you’re trying to hijack my name. Funny you didn’t take it at the party, huh? Suddenly Langsford did not really tie in there. You’ve made your choice, your choice, now it’s too late.’
Then came the scandal that saw Phillip Schofield resign from This Morning after an ‘indiscreet but not illegal’ affair with a younger male member of staff. Eamonn gave some explosive interviews blaming Schofield and also took a few swipes at Schofield’s co-presenter, Holly Willoughby. Friends say Eamonn’s role in the Phillip Schofield scandal – giving interviews incriminating ‘Scofe’, his former co-star on This Morning, has hit Ruth hard.
On the GB News show Eamonn said: ‘Who is watching today who has kissed Phillip Schofield, let us know.’
The day after Holly teased ‘Are you OK?’ statement – where he addressed the audience of ITV’s This Morning for the first time after Schofield quit, asking ‘First of all, are you well? I hope so’ – Eamonn observed about Holly: ‘You think she has a big mouth? They won’t use it today.’
Eamonn claims the young man at the heart of the scandal has stayed through with Schofield in ‘playtime’ on Friday, and will come back to work on Friday morning in a taxi paid for by ITV. But Schofield insists he only had five encounters with the man, he only came to the flat and did not have an ITV taxi account.
Ruth was then – and remains – a host on ITV’s Loose Women. Holmes has now left ITV’s This Morning, where he used to present Ruth on Fridays. It remains a mystery whether he agreed that he disrespected ITV in a public way.
Meanwhile, last month, Katie Alexander joined Eamonn on a trip to Belfast, and they were seen four days in a row at the same budget friendly restaurant, Papa Browns in Carrickfergus. And now they are on their last summer vacation in Europe. All the signs are that this is a serious romance for Eamonn, a cradle Catholic who will suffer in the face of a second divorce. Maybe Katie, who charges £45 an hour for relationship counselling, will be able to help him.
