There are few clearer signals you have moved on from a difficult marriage split than bringing out a book called Feeling Fabulous. But Ruth Langsford makes it clear in the memoir she doesn’t always feel that way and the breakdown of her relationship with Eamonn Holmes took a huge toll on her for many months.
Looking back, Loose Women star Ruth credits close friends and therapy for helping her turn a corner after some tearful and testing days.
She told the Mirror : “Some people cope with things better than others, but when you do come through a period of darkness, you feel proud of yourself, and you can look back and think, ‘I handled that, I did that’. I’m still standing with whatever life has thrown at me, and I’m proud of that. And I think that you can do that if you dig deep.
“The book talks about how to be your best self no matter what life throws at you, and I do believe we’re all stronger than we think. You hope that life doesn’t throw awful things at you, and you’ll never know how you’ll cope but you don’t really know until they happen to you.
“When I look at the things that have happened again, good or bad, I think about grabbing the good things with both hands, grabbing opportunities, running with them. Don’t be afraid. Step forward. Step into the light, and you’ll surprise yourself. At the time, you never think you’ll get through it, whatever it is.”
She also credits her friends for helping her when she hit low points in life. Ruth adds: “Friendships, particularly female friendships, are so important to me. There are so many things in my life, which I have included in the book that I would not have got through without my close friends who literally picked me off the floor and helped me get through also sharing fun times.
“For me, the best holidays are holidays with my girlfriends, where we just laugh and laugh and laugh. It’s good for the soul, and I have got very close friends, some from school, others, I’ve met through work, through Jack’s school, and I’ve collected friends along the way, during my life. And they are very, very important to me, and I thank goodness I’ve got them all.”
Ruth is 65 and has faced a few traumatic moments in the last few years of her life but the major event which hit the headlines in May 2024 was her split from fellow TV star Eamonn. The pair had been married for 14 years and together for over two decades, even working together on This Morning whilst bringing up son Jack.
In the book, Ruth admits it felt “devastating” and “impossible to survive” at times and she would start many days by crying in the shower over the split before getting ready for work.
In our interview, she makes it clear she will not discuss the personal details of the divorce out of respect for their son Jack and her ex.
But she does talk about her own emotions following the breakdown on the relationship and says in the book: “The biggest emotion that threatened to swallow me up in the early days was sadness. When you have been with somebody for a long time – 26 years in our case – and had imagined what your future would look like, there is a sense of deep loss.
“I expected Eamonn and me to be together for ever and knowing this was not going to happen was incredibly hard to come to terms with. Suddenly, life was different, with no clue what the months and years ahead would look like.”
Ruth managed to get “a little better” day by day and credits nights in with her girl friends as well as therapy sessions she initially resisted for helping her begin a new period of her life.
“I am not happy my marriage is over, but I have accepted it. I think this has been the biggest turning point for me because fighting against the inevitable is exhausting and pointless,” she writes.
Asked for her advice for being positive and ‘feeling fabulous’ going forward, she says: “I always say, surround yourself with fabulous people. Don’t have toxic people in your life, if you can help it, surround yourself with people who support you, have fun, make yourself say yes to things.
“And I’ve started to do that more and more. It’s very easy to stay at home. And when you go out and you try something new, it can surprise you, and just sometimes, sitting on a Friday night with the takeaway curry for one watching Coronation Street makes me feel fabulous. So find your own fabulous, you’ll know what it is.”
And whilst she is open to dating again and even marriage one day(“never say never” is her new mantra), she is in no rush.
Towards the end of the book she says: “While I don’t think that a woman needs a man to be happy, it’s important to say that I have not been put off relationships or even marriage, but neither am I out there looking for a new partner.”
As well as her love life, Ruth also discusses other elements of her life in the book including appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, her friendships formed on Loose Women and movingly how she has coped with her parents both getting dementia and the death of her beloved sister Julia to suicide.
Her father Dennis died in 2012 but her mum is now in a care home, although painfully she sometimes doesn’t recognise Ruth now.
Ruth says: “I have found it very cathartic to talk about particularly dementia and Alzheimer’s and losing my dad, and obviously losing my sister to suicide. It’s very difficult to write, very, very difficult to talk about, particularly when I recorded the audio book.
“But I am very happy that I’ve done that, because it’s a tribute to my dad and it’s a tribute to my sister, and again, I hope that if there’s one person struggling with either of those things, with Alzheimer’s, dementia, suicide of a family member, that something I might talk about could help them in some small way.”
Looking ahead with a smile, she adds: “I can’t believe that here I am with a book I’d never, ever thought I would write a book, but I have. I’ve got some trips away planned. I’ve got fabulous things planned for my fashion range at QVC, and also I have an open mind to new things that come might come into my life. Who knows, but I feel 2026 is going to be a good one.”
* Feeling Fabulous: Be your best self, no matter what life throws at you by Ruth Langsford is out on Thursday, published by Hodder & Stoughton
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