Eamonn Holmes hinted at what might have led to the end of his marriage with Ruth Langsford.
It was revealed over the weekend that TV's golden couple are heading for a divorce after 14 years of marriage.
The pair, both 64, announced they would officially part ways after work commitments “took their marriage in different directions” but they are trying to keep things amicable.
A representative said: "Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes have confirmed their marriage is over and they are in the process of divorcing."
In the wake of their split, an interview from last year has emerged in which Holmes revealed he “pined” to return to his native Northern Ireland, but Langsford “wouldn't go”.
Speaking to Kaye Adams for her How to be 60 podcast, Belfast-born Holmes admitted last year: “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 added: “I've never taken to London life; it's never been for me. It's not what I would call home.
“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.
“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.”
The unearthed interview comes as questions about whether Holmes marriage to Langsford ended for the same reasons he split from his first wife, Gabrielle Holmes, with whom he shares three children.
In his 2008 autobiography, This Is My Life, the GB News anchor wrote that his job was a significant factor in his split from Gabrielle — a factor now cited in his separation from Langsford as well.
He penned: “That was the first time I realised there wasn't that emotional support there for me, though I probably had suspected it.
“By that stage we tended to be apart during the week because of my job, and I had no trouble with that - though Gabrielle obviously did.
“I always believed absence would make the heart grow fonder and, in fact, the commuting heightened my desperation for her, made the time less bearable and longer.
“But it gave my wife a life of her own, with her children, and come weekends I was intruding on it, y'know.”
However, friends say the breakdown of their marriage was “very recent”.
Despite facing immense personal challenges in recent years—coping with bereavement, work, and health issues— the couple have been living together and supporting each other until "the past few months", a source told The Mirror.
