Eamonn Holmes, who has presented the breakfast show on GB News since 2022 after his stint on This Morning ended, has been embroiled in a long-running tax row with the HMRC
Eamonn Holmes, pictured with partner Katie Alexander, is facing ‘a very sad’ situation, it is said(Image: BACKGRID)
Eamonn Holmes is reportedly considering leaving England for his native Northern Ireland amid a long-running tax row.
The veteran broadcaster says the dispute with the HMRC has “wrecked him” as he has had to sell two homes, and still owes £250,000. Eamonn, 65, has on top of this recently suffered a nasty injury to his face and has reportedly faced “turmoil” in his new romance.
Those close to Eamonn, who now presents the breakfast show on GB News, say the star is “clearly struggling” and often “in a foul mood” with the mounting pressure on his shoulders. The situation has reportedly become so challenging friends have urged the father of four to move back to Northern Ireland, where he is from, and “be a star there”.
The journalist worked on shows in Northern Ireland, including for Ulster Television, during the early days of his long career. Referring to these successes, one friend said: “He will have a much nicer life [in Northern Ireland], but it seems like he’s clinging on to the fame in England. It’s all very sad.”
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Eamonn presents GB News nowadays(Image: GB NEWS)
Eamonn last week said he still owes £250,000 to the HMRC for an outstanding bill. Eamonn insists he was a freelancer when he hosted Sky’s Sunrise morning show, an 11-year stint ending in 2016, but the HMRC says this wasn’t the case.
Speaking in Northern Ireland, the broadcaster said: “They still want another quarter of a million pounds off me… I’ve paid them more than a million already, but they won’t stop. It’s still going on and they want another £250,000. They’ve ruined me.
“They came after me and said: ‘We always said that you were self-employed? Well, we’ve thought about it, you’re not, so we want ten years of back taxes and national insurance.’ So they basically, at the most vulnerable time of my life, wrecked me financially.”
As a result, the grandfather has had to sell his home in Belfast, holiday pad in Portugal and yet still owes money to the authority. Despite speaking candidly about his woes, people close to Eamonn expressed concern about the challenges. One source told the Daily Mail: “It feels like everything is coming to a head. What happens on screen and what happens off-screen are very different. When the cameras roll, Eamonn still switches it on, but away from that it’s very messy. He’s in a foul mood, and everyone behind the scenes feels it… People’s patience is wearing a bit thin.”
Eamonn has worked for GB News, Sky News, ITV, BBC and other large organisations during his career, which began in the late 1970s. He became a household name and he and then wife Ruth Langsford were the golden couple of daytime TV, but the couple split last year. The separation happened after both Eamonn and Ruth left their roles on This Morning, where they often presented Friday’s shows.