Nowadays, the response – or not – to a publication on social networks can be very revealing about interpersonal relationships.
So what to make of the fact that Eamonn Holmes liked a photo of his soon-to-be ex-mother-in-law taken this week by his soon-to-be ex-wife, Ruth Langsford?
Ruth’s elderly mother is currently in hospital after a fall in which she fractured her hip.
It was the latest twist in Ruth and Eamonn’s breakup saga, which came days after he was pictured in Paris with his new girlfriend Katie Alexander, who wore a large diamond sparkler on the third finger of her left hand.
This inevitably sparked rumors that the couple were engaged and that Eamonn and Ruth would be divorcing “quickly” to facilitate the nuptials. So are wedding bells imminent for Eamonn and Katie? Have he and Ruth gotten closer?
Even more confusing is that Eamonn and Ruth are still wearing their wedding rings.
Certainly, the TV presenter and his new, much younger girlfriend seemed happy in Paris, although they make an unlikely couple.
Holmes, 65, is wheelchair-bound due to chronic back pain and mobility issues. He has gray hair and wears zip-up sweaters. Bling plays no role in your personal style.
Eamonn Holmes and his glamorous girlfriend Katie Alexander on holiday in Ibiza in September
Blonde Katie, 43, favors short, tight dresses, a touch of bright lipstick and sky-high heels. The mother of three also likes designer bags.
As a friend of Eamonn’s observed to me, the contrast between them is striking: ‘The first time I saw Katie I thought, ‘What! Is this real?
But no one needs to pick a hat just yet, as another friend of Eamonn’s says he’s “categorically” not engaged to Katie (at least not yet). ‘They both take each other and romance very seriously. They seem to be on their way to marriage, but they are definitely not engaged,” they tell me.
So what’s holding things up? Ruth and Eamonn began legally dismantling their union several weeks before the May 25 announcement that clearly stated: “Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed that their marriage has ended and are in the process of divorcing.”
It’s been almost exactly seven months since that statement, which is, coincidentally, about the average time it takes to get divorced in the UK.
There doesn’t seem to be any major disagreement on any particular issue. Ruth, for example, would like to keep her former matrimonial home in Weybridge and will buy the property from her, but she is still taking her time. By mutual agreement, Ruth will also stay with her dog, Maggie, as Eamonn is not physically well enough to walk her.
While there have been reports that Ruth deliberately removed the house’s stairlift just before Eamonn left on his first holiday with Katie in September (a Mediterranean cruise), making it difficult for her ex-husband to collect his belongings, they say friends of Ruth. that this is simply false.
Months earlier they had removed the stair lift and had given Eamonn plenty of notice. Furthermore, he never went to the house to get his belongings before his vacation.
“If you knew who Ruth was as a person, you’d know this is wrong: it’s not about who she is,” says one. Eamonn said in June that he hoped he and ‘Ruthie’ could remain friends. And while he may have liked her post about his mother and she in turn liked an Instagram post from Eamonn and a colleague, Ruth’s friends don’t think it’s likely there will be anything resembling a friendship.
They think she’s been hurt too deeply for that. Is it possible that she is still wearing her wedding ring to indicate that divorce was not her choice?
Her friend Coleen Nolan, who appears on Loose Women with Ruth, said: “I have never met anyone who has handled something with such dignity and pride.” She is such a lady, more of a lady than I will ever be. I would have counted my guts right now. “It’s been absolutely incredible, it really has.”
Eamonn and Katie loved up earlier this month. Blonde Katie, 43, prefers short tight dresses, a touch of bright lipstick and high heels, writes Alison Boshoff.
Coleen, who has survived two divorces, continued: “I’ll send him messages about staying strong and a text asking him how he is today.” I just love her and am amazed at how she has handled everything. “She is so elegant and fabulous.”
Ruth was reportedly devastated when she found messages on a laptop indicating that Eamonn, her partner of 28 years, had developed a friendship with another woman.
The depth of her pain is evident in her long break from Loose Women – she had two months off to catch her breath.
Her friends say that she is not interested in dating at all, unlike Eamonn. “She has no interest in a new romantic partner,” they tell me. ‘Zero.’
Again, that says it all about how badly she was hurt by Eamonn, who used to present This Morning with her on Fridays. While Eamonn will spend Christmas with Katie, Ruth won’t be alone. Jack, the son she shares with Eamonn, will be with her.
And naturally, his focus will be on his 93-year-old mother Joan, who may well still be in the hospital over the festive season. A friend said: ‘Ruth and her mother are everything to each other. “Every Sunday they peel vegetables together for lunch and have a glass of sweet sherry.”
Ruth’s sister Julia committed suicide in 2019 after being ‘tortured’ by depression for years. Ruth later said that she could have cried every day for the next year and that this was her hardest time. So perhaps the difficulties of getting divorced pale in comparison to such a tragedy.
Ruth has hired lawyer Catherine Costley, who works for the divorce brief, Baroness Fiona Shackleton, known as Steel Magnolia, who earns £480 an hour.
All parties are apparently frustrated by the slow pace and some old friends of Eamonn believe his Roman Catholic upbringing could play a role, which is the most likely reason he is still wearing his wedding ring. His separation from his first wife, Gabrielle, with whom he had three children in the mid-1990s, was the cause of real mental anguish.
When the news of the end of the marriage finally became public, she found it even more painful. “I was being ridiculed as the man who had just abandoned his wife and children, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Beset by Catholic guilt and feeling extremely vulnerable and depressed, I told myself I would never go through this misery again and believed I would never be able to have a relationship with anyone else.”
However, waiting in the wings was the vivacious local television reporter, Ruth Langsford. They were introduced by a mutual friend when he unofficially split from Gabrielle and the connection eventually became serious.
Confusingly, Eamonn and Ruth Langsford are still wearing their wedding rings.
He said: ‘Ruth turned out to be my knight in shining armor. At first, just by being a friend, her emotional support, which later turned into deep love, made me believe in my own happiness again.’
He and Ruth welcomed Jack in 2002 and married in 2010. Keep in mind, he couldn’t have been happier with Ruth, but it still took him many years to be ready to say “I do” again.
Last month it emerged that in 2012, just two years after the wedding, he and Katie exchanged messages for the first time. She and her then-husband George chatted with Eamonn on Twitter (now X). The star likes to talk to people he doesn’t know on social media.
At one point, the businessman even joked to Eamonn: “I think he’s flirting with you.” George, a die-hard Manchester United fan like Eamonn, added: “Good job, we’re both reds.”
George, 53, and therapist Katie divorced in 2022 after 12 years together. It turned out that Eamonn had been showering Katie with gifts and treats in the months before their marriage ended.
Last October, eight months before splitting from Ruth, Eamonn traveled to Yorkshire to organize a charity event related to Katie’s work. Quite a task for someone in such poor health.
“I have a lot of sympathy for Ruth,” George said. ‘I was heartbroken when my marriage to Katie ended. It took me a couple of years to recover. I know how distraught Ruth must be (but) Katie has a heart so she will feel bad for Ruth.’
But there’s no doubt that Eamonn and Katie are now in love. Katie, who lives with her children in Yorkshire, spends as much time as she can at Eamonn’s beautiful flat in Kingston, Surrey.
A friend told a newspaper: “He has been speaking openly about his plans to marry Katie and made it clear that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.”
‘Now they live together and he knows he feels good. They have a strong connection. She has given him a true desire to live.
However, there is a sense that this personal happiness is his only ray of light, as in recent years Eamonn has been beset by problems large and small.
For starters, there’s turbulence at GB News, where it’s just been announced that her friend and co-presenter Isabel Webster is leaving.
And his physical limitations have not improved, despite all efforts. He had hoped that a double hip replacement in 2016 would free him from chronic pain.
He then underwent surgery for a herniated disc in 2022, but has not been able to walk without assistance since.
In January of this year he admitted that he might never be able to do it again.
Eamonn is also still furious at having lost a five-year battle with HMRC over his tax situation. That cost him “hundreds of thousands” of pounds in legal fees and a £250,000 tax bill when his appeal was finally rejected last year.
He said the ruling had been “the most stressful (situation) apart from losing my father”, adding: “I felt like a lamb to the slaughter.” It was the most stressful and humiliating experience… it’s like everything I had worked for had been taken away from me.’
Eamonn, whose career was well established before his relationship with Ruth began, will also likely lose some more money in a deal.
Some believe that the complexities of his financial situation due to his fight against HMRC are partly to blame for the slow pace at which things are progressing in this regard.
What is certain is that without a ‘quickie’ divorce, there will likely be more twists and turns before Eamonn and Ruth finally legally separate.