28 May 2024 , 13:56
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Eamonn Holmes has hinted at a possible cause of his marriage breakdown - wife Ruth Langsford doesn’t want to move to his native Northern Ireland while he is desperate to 'go home' and live by the sea.
The Belfast-born TV star told how the couple didn’t see eye to eye over their future, as he wants to return to Ireland but Ruth has made it clear that she wouldn’t go.
He explained: “I’ve always pined to go back to Belfast, because that’s what I associate with company and friendship and craic. I’d love to have a house – nowadays probably a bungalow – with a sea view. I’d love to breathe in sea air and I always associate that with Ireland. I think that would make me happy. Trouble is, Ruth wouldn’t go. That’s a little snag. She wouldn’t go. I do like the idea. I do like the idea of being there,” he said.
The TV legends shocked fans with a statement at the weekend confirming that their 14 year marriage was over.
(Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Until their split Eamonn and Ruth, both 64, shared a luxury six-bedroom home in Weybridge, Surrey. But speaking to Kaye Adams for her How to be 60 podcast, Eamonn admitted last year that he never considered England to be his home and that he was lonely being away from his family in Northern Ireland.
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“I’ve never taken to London life; it’s never been for me. It’s not what I would call home,” he explained. “I go back to Ireland all the time and everybody I know is there – my four other brothers, two of my children and my grandchild is there as well. So, it’s always had a call for me to be back in Northern Ireland. That stretch of water is a big divide. I find London can be very lonely.
Eamonn Holmes has always wanted to return to his beloved Northern Ireland (ITV)“I don’t have the same friendships or camaraderie with people that I know in London, because it’s all so disparate and far apart. I’ve never felt it to be home or somewhere that I would call home. You need mates. In the London area you’re miles away from everyone.”
In the candid discussion he also told Kaye - who works alongside Ruth as a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women - that his wife was scornful of his passion for buying old childhood toys on eBay and refused to let him display them at home.
Ruth and Eamonn on This Morning back in 2002 (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Eamonn is upset about his marriage breakdown (Justin Kernoghan)“It meets disdain from my wife. I tend to look up toys from when I was about ten years of age, so anything to do with Airfix, soldiers, Captain Scarlet toys, Dinky, Corgi – things that made me very happy when I was young,” he told said.
“And then Ruth shouts, things arrive and she doesn’t allow them in the house and she calls them dust collectors. I’m not allowed to display anything. When I was a kid, I had lots of Action Men and I tried to start buying Action Men, but Ruth put the kibosh on that as well.”
He said that Ruth had told him that his comedy skills were what held their marriage together, claiming she'd told him “if you didn’t make me laugh so much, we’d be divorced.”
The couple were renowned for their bickering and rows, many of which took place on screen as they presented together on This Morning. But they always insisted their disagreements came from a place of affection and they were thought to have one of the strongest marriages on screen.
Eamonn with his mum Josie (Irish Mirror)
Ruth with her mum and late sister (Instagram)The pair worked closely together as co-presenters on the ITV show until 2021. While Ruth stayed with ITV as an anchor on the lunchtime chat show Loose Women, Eamonn moved over to GB News.
Yesterday as he returned to the breakfast show after the bank holiday weekend he thanked viewers for the messages they had sent since their divorce plans were revealed on Saturday.
He said: "Just before we move on I would 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.”
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Earlier in the show he’d admitted to having an "emotional" weekend - but it turned out he was referring to his beloved Manchester United winning the FA Cup against rivals Manchester City.
He told his co-host Isabel Webster: "The weekend was just marvellous, marvellous, marvellous. The FA Cup final was one of the greatest cup finals there has ever been. It got me there. Yeah, it's emotional."