![\"Eamonn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/34f46731-4d24-4e1b-a883-2dce052340d9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cI have to have carers now looking after me. Somebody dresses me in the morning, somebody undresses me at night, somebody gets my food for me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The GB News star reveals he\u2019s going through one of the toughest periods of his life after back surgery left him largely confined to a wheelchair and relying on carers.<\/p>\n
Eamonn\u2019s also adjusting to the end of his 14-year marriage to Ruth Langsford and an estimated \u00a3250,000 tax bill from the HMRC, branded \u201cthe Department of Thievery\u201d by the typically outspoken Belfast man, which cost him his beloved home in the city.<\/p>\n
But the 65-year-old \u2013 a TV face for nearly five decades \u2013 is determined to look on the bright side of his success with a tour of his autobiography, This is My Life, around Northern Ireland next month.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eamonn Holmes. Photo: Mike Marsland\/WireImage<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – October 20th<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can put your life on hold or you can try and do something. I was doing nothing and I thought I can\u2019t do this. I have to get out there and talk to people,\u201d Eamonn told the Sunday World this week.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll share his humble beginnings in Belfast, when his dad once had to ask the UDA not to attack his family, why he worked in a bar for two years after he\u2019d become a prime time news anchor, and the famous friendships he\u2019s valued.<\/p>\n
The star, who\u2019s recovering from recent cataract surgery on both eyes, also hopes he\u2019ll be able to share good news about his health with fans. He suffered severe back pain following a double hip replacement in 2016, but the surgery two years ago which relieved the pain left him able to walk only short distances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being tested for suitability for stem cell replacement next week to see if it would have any effect on my back and legs because I\u2019ve been two years in a wheelchair,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
![\"eamonn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e54a7e64-d5d2-41f5-9e3a-20cd1a7f5aec.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
eamonn holmes eye<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to have carers now looking after me. Somebody dresses me in the morning, somebody undresses me at night, somebody gets my food for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be tested with spinal injections to see if it will take, and then grow some life back into my spine and legs. It\u2019s all very experimental. I\u2019ll know next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say this is the toughest stage of my life ever. And I just battle on,\u201d says Eamonn.<\/p>\n
The health struggles follow a tough 2024 for the presenter with the end of his marriage to Ruth Langsford, with whom he has 23-year-old son Jack. Eamonn also has three children from his first marriage.<\/p>\n
A long-running tax dispute with HMRC over his employment status cost him his Belfast base last year, which he reveals was a personal as well as a financial blow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always took the view I was freelance because I worked in so many different places, and the taxman agreed with that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they phoned me up and said, \u2018we\u2019ve changed our minds,\u2019 and that is just the Department of Thievery. They looked for 10 years back tax and National Insurance and I lost my house in Belfast.<\/p>\n
![\"eamonn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5c74d1ae-cbaa-4031-ad1a-f546ff5f0ef9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
eamonn holmes<\/p>\n
\u201cGod I miss it. The trouble is I now need to work because I\u2019ve got no money and you need to work to pay for carers and staff and medical appointments but I can only do that in London.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s become one of the biggest stars on GB News, presenting three days a week. The presenter is not afraid to air his opinions, including the view that his former ITV colleague Phillip Schofield, who stepped down after revelations of an affair with a young show runner, is a \u201cnarcissist\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite his career success on GMTV, Sky\u2019s Sunrise, This Morning and a host of other TV commitments, Eamonn admits in his early days he feared his career wouldn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
For two years after he took over UTV\u2019s flagship news show Good Evening Ulster, replacing Gloria Hunniford, he kept working as a barman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would present that and say goodbye at seven and at half past seven I\u2019d appear behind the bar where I\u2019d worked from when I was 16, the Christian Brothers Past Pupils Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne night Pat Thompson, the head barman, said to me, \u2018what\u2019s all this?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to him, \u2018but Pat this TV lark will never last\u2019. He just pulled my bowtie off and said, \u2018it will last\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his tour Eamonn is determined to dispel the myth that he\u2019s led a privileged life. He\u2019ll share early memories of the ordinary upbringing he led in north Belfast as one of five boys, including early experiences of the Troubles.<\/p>\n
After one house move he was delighted to have a garden, but the Ulster Workers Council strike in 1974 led to fears of sectarian attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were one of only three Catholics in 100 houses,\u201d says Eamonn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember my dad went to the UDA and he basically said, \u2018I\u2019ve got five sons. We\u2019re Catholic and you know we are. You\u2019ve put two blast bombs on the doors of Catholic families\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the power of my dad, who was a carpet fitter. He just laid it out. He said, \u2018we\u2019re no harm or no threat to you. We just want to lead our lives\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unbelievable. We weren\u2019t harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast with those tough early days is the succession of stars he\u2019s interviewed, including David Bowie, Dolly Parton, John Travolta, Pierce Brosnan and his lasting friendship with James Bond star Roger Moore, which started when Moore approached him in a restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe became really good friends. I brought him to football. I brought him to John Daly\u2019s chat show in Belfast and we sang Singin\u2019 in the Rain together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shared a car to Belfast International Airport and we were really late for the last flight, and they held the flight for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were speeding up the road and he was holding on to the side of the seat and I said, \u2018what\u2019s wrong with you?\u2019 and he said, \u2018I hate fast cars\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018but you\u2019re James Bond\u2019. We sat on that plane and I\u2019ve never had a funnier journey in my life,\u201d says Eamonn.<\/p>\n
Tickets for Eamonn Holmes This is My Life are available from www.SDEntertainment.co.uk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have to have carers now looking after me. Somebody dresses me in the morning, somebody undresses me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-213744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}