Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford were Britain’s favourite couple for 15 years. The pair presented ITV’s flagship magazine show, This morningevery Friday, and various other factual programmes and a teatime quiz. Not all couples would enjoy working together, but Holmes and Langsford seemed exceptionally content, on screen and off.
The news earlier this year that the couple were divorcing came as a huge shock to viewers. Holmes, who now presents the breakfast show on GB News (he and Langsford left This morning in 2021) thanked fans for their support and the couple was inundated with well-wishes on social media.
When a “friend” was quoted as saying that the fracture was caused by Langsford, who had struggled to care for Holmes since undergoing a double hip replacement followed by back surgery, some of those well-wishers turned their condolences to Holmes.
But now the presenter is at risk of losing that goodwill after he was photographed on a romantic holiday with a blonde 22 years his junior. Looking frail, he was seen in Barcelona and Ibiza in an electric wheelchair with his rumoured girlfriend, Katie Alexander, 42, by his side. The holiday has reportedly left Langsford “bewildered”.
Now, the Loose women presenter is said to have hired formidable divorce lawyer Catherine Costley to negotiate her financial settlement with Holmes, which is reportedly worth £4million. The aptly named Costley was once a student of Fiona Shackleton, Britain’s most prominent divorce lawyer, who represented the monarch in his 1996 split from Princess Diana and was famously slugged by Heather Mills during her divorce from Paul McCartney.
Although a spokesperson for Holmes and Langsford said they were “determined to remain friends and keep things amicable” when they first announced their split, that may no longer be the case. Costley has been named one of the top divorce lawyers in the country, described as “progressive and fierce on behalf of women”.
In her spare time, Costley enjoys a triathlon or two and has even competed in Iron Man races. “The competitive spirit runs deep in my family and I raced against my twin sister, father and husband,” she said. “Only one of the three got past, but I’ll catch her in the next race…” Good luck to anyone battling her in court.
So what’s changed for daytime TV’s former golden couple? Alexander, a relationship therapist from Yorkshire, first befriended Holmes on Twitter in 2015. In October last year, the newsreader attended a mental health charity event in Yorkshire, where Alexander works as a therapist, and took on the role of patron.
They may have a 22-year age gap, but Alexander’s relationship history suggests she prefers the older man. She dated Michael Devine when she was a 19-year-old shop assistant and he was a 59-year-old bus driver. They had a son together, Ben, who is now 22.
After her split from Devine, Katie worked at Barca cafe in Dewsbury and married bar owner George Alexander, nine years her senior. They had a daughter in 2010 and a son in 2011, but their marriage ended in 2022. Her ex-husband George, 53, revealed that it was social media that brought Eamonn and Katie together.
“She wasn’t as into him as if he was George Clooney, but she liked being on social media and one day she said she’d had a comment from him,” he recently told the Daily Mail. “She’d commented on one of his posts and Eamonn got in touch with me. I have to admit I laughed. I was surprised. Katie went to visit him. It was a regular pattern.”
There is no evidence that Katie met Holmes while she was still with George, but in the year before he split from Ruth, Holmes reportedly showered Katie with gifts, including tickets to a Beyoncé concert and a family trip to a safari park. There is no evidence that they were anything more than friends at this point.
But in recent months the couple have been away together, not only on their Mediterranean holiday but also to Holmes’ hometown of Belfast in August. The pair were spotted at Papa Browns in Carrickfergus for four days straight. They have also reportedly been spending a lot of time together at Holmes’ new flat in Kingston-upon-Thames and are planning to move in together. The divorced mother of three is said to have told friends she is with Eamonn for the “long haul”.
Holmes was married when he first met Ruth. The couple were introduced in 1997 by their mutual friend, television presenter Sally Meen. They initially kept their relationship secret, out of respect for Eamonn’s first wife, Gabrielle Holmes, with whom he had three children. Ruth and Eamonn went public a few years later, and his divorce was finalized in 2005.
“I thought it spoke volumes about the kind of man he was, the kind of father he was and the integrity he had. It made me love him more, not less,” Ruth said of the secrecy at the time. They had a son, Jack, in 2002 and married in a lavish ceremony at The Elvetham Hotel in Hampshire in 2010. It was covered by Hello! Magazine and TV stars including Jeremy Kyle, Gloria Hunniford and Zoe Lucker were in attendance.
Ruth once described her and Holmes as “like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – even though we bicker and argue, our love for each other and the bond we share is ultimately so strong.” But unlike Burton and Taylor, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be getting back together any time soon.
In June, Holmes said, “I’m not OK. This is not a good time at all. It’s too early to tell, but I hope we can still be friends.” Perhaps he’s found solace in counselor Katie. A recommendation on her therapy profile describes her as, “Kind, warm, down-to-earth, and empathetic.”
In early September, a fan on Instagram asked Langsford why she was still wearing her wedding ring. She shot back with laughing emojis: “Because I’m still married.” After these photos of Holmes on vacation and the reported recruitment of the tenacious Catherine Costley, that probably won’t be the case for much longer.