Ruth Langsford, fixture of daytime TV, talks to Jane McGowan about Loose Women, lucky breaks and why charity begins close to home...
If ITV Daytime were a family, Ruth Langsford would be the matriarch. Her professionalism and easy charm saw her helm the flagship show This Morning for an impressive 22 years, making her its longest-serving host. And while we are counting, for the past 25 years, Ruth has been a key fixture of lunchtime, too.
That’s when you’ll find her keeping a firm but fun hand on the sometimes raucous goings-on of the incomparable Loose Women as they debate everything from mansplaining to menopause.
“It’s amazing to think that it’s 25 years since I first appeared on the show,” says the 63-year-old Weybridge resident.
“I’m still working on it today and very proud to be doing so. Actually, I am very proud that the programme has continued for 25 years at all, as it was quite something when it started. A panel of four women talking about intelligent things.”
A quarter of a century on, Ruth can’t quite remember the first topic. However, she vividly recalls the first time her comments received a bit of a backlash.
“It was before I’d had my son Jack, and he’s 21 now. I remember talking about children’s diets and people saying how hard it was to control what children ate. And I said: ‘I don’t agree because you’re in charge of the purse strings. If I had children, they would eat what I put on the table.’ People berated me, telling me to wait till I had children.
Of course, when I had Jack, I realised it was actually quite difficult,” she laughs. Pulling in just under one million viewers, Loose Women often takes a light-hearted look at life. But it also uses its presence to debate some difficult subjects.
“We’re very topical, talking over whatever’s going on in the news, but obviously we do fun things as well. There’s a lot of light and shade in the show. We have discussed some very, very serious things, some very poignant things, some very sad things. I always feel totally supported by the other women. Whatever it is we’re debating, we’ve got each other’s backs.”
Despite that, however, rumours of feuds between the feisty females frequently fly – rumours which Ruth is quick to dismiss as just newspaper nonsense.
Ruth Langsford Parka Coat - Khaki
“You see those headlines – often about me and Coleen [Nolan] in particular. Yet we’re great mates. It makes us laugh, actually, because we banter a lot and then sometimes it’s written up as like: ‘Ruth disses Coleen on Loose Women.’ We find it amusing.
“They’re an amazing group of women to work with – all ages, all backgrounds – and I find it fascinating to listen to other people’s opinions and views. Often, I can change mine. I’m very opinionated, but I can start out thinking one thing, and then we have the discussion, and I go: ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of it like that. Interesting.’”
Notwithstanding her impressive resume – How the Other Half Lives and Ruth Langsford’s Fashion Edit are among the other highlights on her broadcasting CV – presenting wasn’t Ruth’s first career choice. “I ended up in television because, actually, I was a very directionless teenager,” she reveals.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and flunked a lot of my exams. My mum encouraged me to do a shorthand and typing course as a back-up.” Reluctantly, she enrolled, discovering, to her surprise, that she had a natural aptitude and appetite for the work. So much so that, just a few months later, she landed a job in the office of Television South West in Plymouth.
“I ended up working in the main control room as a transmission assistant – again, with no aspiration to be on TV. I actually wanted to be a floor manager, as I’m quite bossy and thought I’d be good at that. ‘Stand by, everybody! Five seconds to go. Quiet, please,’” she laughs. “But I had this just unbelievably lucky break. It was like a fairytale moment. They were looking for a part-time, stand-in continuity presenter and offered me the position as a trainee, which absolutely floored me. It came from nowhere.
“But when opportunities arise, it’s a sliding doors moment, isn’t it? You can either take that opportunity, however surprising and unexpected, and run with it. Or you can back away and say: ‘No, no, no! I don’t think that’s for me.’”
Ruth ran with it. Four decades on, she is not only a very successful broadcaster in her own right, but also one half of a fruitful presenting partnership: she has been married to former GMTV and current GB News host Eamonn Holmes since 2010.
The pair, who have been together since 1996, live in Weybridge with their son, 21-year-old Jack, close to Ruth’s mum, Joan. “The Surrey Hills and all around here is so beautiful, full of lovely places to walk the dog,” Ruth enthuses. “I feel there’s a community spirit here. I kind of know the neighbours and say hello to people when I’m out and about.”
And it is Ruth’s own sense of community spirit that has led her to champion an array of causes, national and local alike. An Alzheimer’s Ambassador for many years, she is the face of the Memory Walk, which she undertakes each year in tribute to her dad, Dennis, whom she lost to the disease in 2012.
Now, she has become involved with Home Start Elmbridge after hearing of the charity – which offers support to local families with children under five – from her friend, who volunteers there.
“They do absolutely incredible work in the community. My only reservation was that I’m very time-poor, and I don’t believe in offering myself to a charity and then not being able to give them any of my time.”
However, Ruth did think that she could help promote the charity – and given her Instagram following of more than one million, along with almost 500,000 Facebook fans, the charity agreed that she was ideally placed to help.
“Being on TV, having that platform, means that I can do interviews like this, which is how I can help them. So, we agreed they would be happy with that, and I said: ‘When you’ve got fundraisers and other occasions, always ask me, and if I can come, I can come, but I will be very honest if I can’t.’”
Despite her concerns, Ruth has managed to attend quite a few events, including a recent celebration that saw a number of new ‘graduating’ volunteers.
“It was fascinating to meet these people from all walks of life and to listen to the reasons why they wanted to become volunteers. I am totally in awe of them. You know, some of them are working full time, some have young children, some are retired, but everyone is giving up their time to help people in their local community.
“Again, I kept coming back to the fact that the help happens right here, in Elmbridge. That’s what I like. So many charities are struggling now for funds, including Home-Start, and that’s really difficult to see when you know that so many families need help. But I love that people get to receive the help in their own homes, in familiar surroundings, with no judgement.
“It’s incredible to see how grateful they are; to listen to their stories and hear about the positive outcomes. Some of them were in a very difficult place, a dark place, feeling helpless and hopeless. “And yet, with the help of a dedicated volunteer who would go into their home and assist them in whatever way they could – and in whatever way was required – many of them now feel that their lives have been turned around. It’s a very positive thing.”
As for Ruth herself, she is heading straight back to the studio to resume the day job she loves. You can’t tie a Loose Woman down.
For further info visit: homestartelmbridge.org.uk. Home-Start will be raising vital funds at its family-friendly music festival at Loseley Park, Guildford on August 10/11.
