I have a good old cry in the shower then I feel better
Ruth Langsford has opened up about her struggle to cope with her sister’s death, writes
LOOSE Women favourite Ruth Langsford nearly quit television in the wake of her older sister’s death.
The 60-year-old, who also presents This Morning, took time off when Julia, 62, took her own life in June last year after battling with depression for years. Ruth is still struggling to come to terms with it.
She said: “It still feels like yesterday that I lost my sister.
“When you lose somebody, it’s just horrible. But wh e n someone takes their own life, it leaves you with so many questions that can’t be answered.
“I’m lucky that I have a loving husband and a good family, and all I can do is live a happy life in her memory.
“You can’t spend your whole life crying. I’ve done a lot of crying over my sister.
“It’s not even a sense of saying, ‘Pull yourself together and get back to work’, it’s just that you have to get on with your life and you can’t get on with it if you’re crying all day.
“I’ve learned now that I can have those moments. Sometimes I have a good old cry in the shower and feel better for it.”
Working and laughing with her husband Eamonn Holmes and raising their son Jack, 18, has kept Ruth going.
She has been on Loose Women since 1999 and is the longest- serving female presenter on This Morning, having started in 2000.
Ruth now presents Friday episodes with Eamonn and covers for holidays.
She began dating Eamonn, 60, in 1997 but revealed in an interview with Prima magazine that she fancied him before they met. She said: “I was a big fan. I used to watch him on GMTV and I always thought he was handsome, funny and a brilliant journalist.
“It was nerve-racking when I did meet him. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Eamonn Holmes!’
“We’ve been together 23 years, so it has been a long and happy relationship, but we have our moments. There are times when he really annoys me and I really annoy him.
“Underneath it all, we know we have a strong relationship.”
Ruth turned 60 in March and had planned a special year of celebrations that have been curtailed, like so many of our plans, by Covid.
She said: “I was supposed to go to Italy in the summer for my 60th. My birthday was in March, but Eamonn has always said to me that when it’s a big birthday, you should celebrate all year.
“But it’s not the end of the world; we’ll do it another time. I’m just thankful that we’re all fine in my family.
“I think we’re all very lucky if we haven’t been touched in a bad way by the virus.”
Read the full interview in the October issue of Prima, on sale today.