Eamonn Holmes has addressed claims he fell asleep while presenting his GB News breakfast show earlier this month.
The former This Morning star, 66, was accused of “napping” live on air earlier this month while sitting next to his co-host Ellie Costello.
But Holmes has called out the suggestion, clarifying what actually happened.
“I was just looking down at my mic pack to see why it was not working, as we don’t have floor managers or camera operators,” the presenter said on Wednesday (25 March), during an appearance at TV producer Hayley Palmer’s An Audience with… event at London’s Hippodrome Casino.
“Apparently I was sleeping? Whatever!’” he added, according to The Mirror.
Holmes recently detailed his “horrendous” health struggles, saying that he largely uses a wheelchair and has carers “throughout the day”.
He has undergone several surgeries in recent years after starting to experience chronic back pain in 2021. He later discovered the pain was caused by three slipped disks and had spinal surgery, but his recovery was far from smooth and in 2022, he had a second operation, this time for a broken shoulder. He then underwent a third surgery in 2023.
Holmes, who defected from ITV to GB News in 2022, previously told the Irish publication Sunday World: “Somebody dresses me in the morning, somebody undresses me at night, somebody gets my food for me.
“I have to be tested with spinal injections to see if it will take, and then grow some life back into my spine and legs.”
Amid his health woes, Holmes and his partner of 27 years, Ruth Langsford, announced their decision to split in May 2024.
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Langsford has since admitted she felt “blindsided” by the breakup, revealing last month: “In my opinion, I had a very happy marriage. Of course you question yourself: did I miss something, was I not aware, was I too busy? But there’s no point playing the blame game.”
“I just didn’t think I’d find myself here, and I wasn’t strong at the start,” she admitted. “I was broken. Broken heart. Broken dreams. We all have an image of how we think our life and future is going to be. This wasn’t mine.”
Holmes and Langsford – who also worked together, regularly presenting ITV chat show This Morning from 2006 to 2021 – share one son, Jack, who is now 23.
Following the separation, Holmes soon began dating relationship counsellor Katie Alexander. The couple went public with their relationship in 2024, just months after the former This Morning hosts’ split was confirmed.
Langsford has said she is in no rush to meet someone new, admitting: “I’m not ready for a new partner, I haven’t healed from the last one.”
