Ruth Langsford has opened up about needing therapy after splitting from Eamonn HolmesCredit: David VenniShe also opened up about seeing light in the future where she once saw darknessCredit: instagram/ruthlangsfordEamonn and Ruth were together for almost three decadesCredit: Getty
It was revealed that the pair were over and they were in the process of divorcing back in May 2024, with this still currently ongoing.
Ruth, who is known for hosting Loose Women on ITV, has now opened up about needing therapy after their split.
While Eamonn moved on and got into a relationship with counsellor Katie Alexander, who is 22 years his junior, Ruth was attending counselling sessions and focused on her healing.
Speaking to woman&home, Ruth said: “I started counselling when Eamonn and I separated, and I’m still having it.
“It is very powerful and very useful. It gives me tools to deal with things.”
She went on to say: “My counsellor has probably seen us on TV, but she doesn’t know either of us so doesn’t get involved and doesn’t judge.
“She just listens and says, ‘Have you thought about this?’ or ‘Why did you feel like that?’
“I think I know myself very well, so it has just been calming.
“It makes me question how I’m feeling,” she added.
Ruth then added: “When my sister died, friends suggested counselling and I said, ‘I don’t [want] just [for someone] to tell me that I’m really sad,’ and I still feel like that.
“The end of a very long relationship takes a lot of unravelling. Counselling helps you move on from it, to not be held back.”
Ruth and Eamonn announced their split in the spring of 2024 after months of arguing.
Leaving their £2.5million family home in Weybridge, Eamonn soon went public with his new partner Katie.
Asked about whether she would get into a new relationship, Ruth said: “Never say never.”
Speaking to the magazine, she said: “I haven’t been put off having a relationship.
“I haven’t even been put off marriage, but I’m definitely not actively looking, and part of that is because I’ve realised I’m actually quite good on my own.
“I am independent and quite strong.”
Ruth went on: “It has taken me a bit of time [to realise that] and I don’t know what lies ahead, but that chapter now feels quite exciting.
“It’s not as scary as I thought.”
Elsewhere in her interview, Ruth said she once saw “darkness” but now sees light where she did not before.
“Do you crumble? Do you lay down and die? Oh no, not I. I will survive,” she said.
Ruth and Eamonn are not yet officially divorced, with reports swirling that they are currently at war over their money.
The January issue of woman&home is on sale December 4 2025
Ruth’s interview is out in the latest issue of Woman&Home
The seaside village has been named one of the most colourful places in the world – and it’s easy to see why
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Portmeirion has been giving visitors a mood boost since 1926(Image: ChrisHepburn via Getty Images)
A beautiful seaside village is so vibrant and colourful that it may give its residents and visitors a little pick-me-up.
As the nights draw in and daylight hours begin to feel particularly precious, it’s important to do what you can to keep the mood cheery. Taking vitamin D supplements or using a lamp are techniques some opt for to beat the glooming of the seasons.
According to Karen Haller, who works in the field of applied colour psychology, there is another way travellers can perk up their mood. She argues that being in bright, colourful places gives a subconscious mood boost.
“There’s something about stepping into a place full of colour that instantly lifts you. It changes how you feel, how you move through the space, and even how you connect with others. That’s why colour-filled destinations are becoming more popular. We’re drawn to them not just because they look good, but because they leave us feeling better. Happier. More open. More alive. It’s something I do myself, seeking out places where colour isn’t just seen, it’s felt. And those are the experiences that stay with you,” Karen said.
Working with Staysure, a medical travel insurance provider, Karen helped select a ranking of 26 global destinations that offer high levels of colour saturation, vibrancy and hue variation. Ranking highly is the Welsh seaside village of Portmeirion. The Gwynedd folly town turned 100 last year and has been charming locals and visitors alike ever since Sir Clough Williams-Ellis laid the first brick of the baroque masterpiece.
Portmeirion’s location on the Irish Sea in the North West of Wales means it’s not somewhere you’d immediately think would be good for banishing the winter blues. However, the village’s cobbled-together collection of 96 buildings, including cottages, a clock tower, a hotel, and a town hall, is splashed with an array of bright colours and scattered across the hillside in an undeniably cheery manner.
Sir Clough admitted he had taken inspiration for Portmeirion from the Italian town of Portofino. Walking around the town, particularly when the sun is shining, does leave you feeling like you’ve slipped through a Welsh portal and appeared in the Mediterranean. Portmeirion’s roots lie in the Aber Iâ estate, where the ruined Castell Deudraeth was recorded as early as 1188. Victorian tenants later planted exotic trees, and by the time Sir Clough acquired the land, it had become, in his words, a “neglected wilderness”.
He renamed it Portmeirion – ‘Port’ for the coastal location and ‘Meirion’ after the historic county of Merioneth. Construction took place in two stages: the first from 1926 to 1939, and the second from 1954 to 1976. Another charming feature of Portmeirion is that it’s made up of bits of old buildings. The town hall is capped with a roof once belonging to an old country house, bought at auction for £13.
For those who fancy stopping off at Portmeirion for a little winter mood boost, it’s important to know that a charitable trust runs the town and opens it to visitors between 9.30am and 5.30pm. The nearest train station to Portmeirion is Minffordd, which is about a one-mile walk from the village. The walk takes approximately 15 minutes. Minffordd Station is on the Cambrian line, served by Transport for Wales connecting Shrewsbury to Pwllheli and Aberystwyth.
Kaila Hattis, founder and therapist at Pacific Coast Therapy, has a long history of working with people who have experienced trauma on how to regulate emotion. She has also sent her clients to cities that she believes help to relax them
Bath is a lovely Georgian city (Image: futurewalk via Getty Images)
A therapist swears by the power of one UK city when it comes to calming her patients.
Kaila Hattis, founder and therapist at Pacific Coast Therapy, has a long record of working with people with traumatic experiences on how to regulate emotion. When it comes to the places “that have the potential to aid an over-stressed individual relax and unwind”, Kaila is a fan of one in particular.
“Bath has always stood out for its slow-moving, consistent pace from the moment one arrives in the city. The curved Georgian roads move at a soothing pace, while the quieter pockets close to the Abbey have a calming effect on anxious individuals quicker than any grounding technique I have taught. For myself, my own breathing calms within seconds of arriving, and similarly for my clients. Approximately 7 out of 10 of the clients who have traveled to Bath report that their bodies relaxed without them doing anything differently. The reality is that Bath provides people with space to reset themselves, much like wellness trends attempt to simulate but cannot replicate,” Kaila told the Mirror.
The story of the city’s founding goes that Prince Bladud was wandering through the area in 890 BC with a herd of pigs, having been banished from his kingdom after contracting leprosy. He realised that there was something different about the water leaking through the topsoil when his porcine friends began rolling around happily in the warm mud.
It would be on this site that Bath was built, attracting bath-house enthusiasts and pilgrims from across the Continent for the next 2,900 years. If you’re looking for a relaxing break in the city today, then Thermae Bath Spa is a fair bet, boasting as it does herbal steam rooms and four thermal pools, including an open-air rooftop dipping spot.
Bath is also famous for its stunning architecture, which was primarily built during the 18th-century Georgian period – although TV fans may also recognise it as one of the Bridgerton filming locations. The Crescent is arguably the jewel in the city’s architectural crown, using golden Bath stone and the Palladian revival style to turn terraced housing into an art form.
The restored Cleveland Pools – Britain’s oldest lido – the Bath World Heritage Centre are also worth a visit, while those keen to take in a game of Premiership rugby can do so in the central stadium, which lies next to a river beneath fine examples of Georgian architecture. One of Bath’s most iconic attractions is Pulteney Bridge, a symbol of Georgian architecture that domes over the River Avon.
Another highly rated city, ideal for relaxation, is Utrecht, according to Kaila.
“The canals are located beneath the street level and this creates a quieter environment, pulling the noise down into the lower levels before it even becomes noticeable. At present, I send entrepreneurs to Utrecht since many of them operate under a state of constant adrenaline. Upon returning, they report more stable moods, clearer thought processes and significantly reduced episodes of spiraling thoughts. This essentially equates to both cities providing the kinds of resets that most busy individuals rarely permit themselves,” she said.
HE may be growing old very, very gracefully, but George Clooney is worried about ageing too fast – and forgetting his lines.
The Hollywood heartthrob, 64, was taken on a surprise walk down memory lane after shooting his latest film Jay Kelly, in which he plays a fictional famous actor.
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George Clooney, pictured in Italy last year, had to face getting olderCredit: GettyGeorge and wife Amal at the Venice Film Festival in AugustCredit: GettyGeorge as superhero in 2017’s Batman & Robin
Unknown to him, director Noah Baumbach had added snippets of George’s previous movies at the end of the Netflix release.
And watching the years roll by on screen was an eye-opener for the silver fox, not least when he was met with milestones he would rather forget.
His dodgy Eighties haircut in sitcom The Facts Of Life was one, as well as just how young he was when he starred in hospital drama ER in the Nineties.
George, whose hits include Ocean’s Eleven and Gravity, says: “It was really fascinating, because you go through all the things we all go through, which is you watch yourself age, which you have to make peace with.
“You also look at some f***ing horrible mullets. And you have to kind of get through all that.
“And you do get this thing of, ‘God, that was just yesterday, wasn’t it?’. That I was on ER or something. It really does go by fast. And the older you get, the faster it seems to go.”
Having dropped out of university, where he was studying journalism, he sold insurance and shoes while also trying his luck as an extra on TV.
Sequels cancelled George recalls: “I came from Augusta, Kentucky, where I was a tobacco farmer. And you go on all these auditions and you go, ‘Well, I took a shot’. And if it doesn’t work out, it’s easy when you get older to go, ‘Yeah, I gave it a shot. It didn’t work out’, which happens.
“But you can’t do it when you’re old and you didn’t try. That’s regret.”
Back when opportunities were thin on the ground, George did take some roles he now recalls ruefully.
That includes the first movie he was cast in, called Grizzly II: Revenge, which suffered financial problems.
Backers pulled out of the 1983 low-budget horror flick, which also featured Charlie Sheen and Laura Dern, so the cast were stuck in Hungary for weeks while the funding was sorted out.
George reveals: “It was funded by these Hungarians. And then they lost the money.
“And so we got stuck there for, like, two months. And it was Laura, Charlie Sheen and me. It was all our first films.
“And we’re stuck there for two months. And we can’t get home. We don’t know what to do.
In Grizzly II, we get eaten by a bear in the first scene. It never comes out, thank Christ. Then some schmuck finds it. Now it’s ‘starring George Clooney’ and I get worst reviews of my life
George Clooney
“And literally, we get eaten by a bear in the first scene and so it never comes out. Thank Christ.”
Although the movie was not completed at the time, it was finally finished and released in 2020, with George given a top billing, even though he only appeared briefly.
He continues: “Some schmuck finds it and he gets a bunch of old footage of s**. And he puts it together.
“And now it’s like, ‘Starring George Clooney’. And it comes out. And after 40 years, I’m getting the worst reviews of my life.”
George’s screen breakthrough came in 1994 when he began playing paediatric doctor Doug Ross in ER, which was a global success.
It led to major movies including From Dusk Till Dawn two years later, and Batman & Robin in 1997.
George as Jay Kelly and Adam Sandler as Ron Sukenick in Jay KellyCredit: Peter Mountain/NetflixGeorge and Laura Dern in Grizzly IICredit: Alamy
The star is able to laugh off his much-panned version of the caped crusader, which was such a flop that the sequels were cancelled.
And he jokes that his eight-year-old twins Alexander and Ella will be left traumatised by the Batman outfit he wore.
The actor says: “We know they’re going to be in therapy no matter what, just from Batman & Robin. ‘My dad had rubber f***ing nipples’. Disaster.”
George, who was married to actress Talia Balsam, 66, for four years until 1993, dated a string of beautiful women, including Renee Zellweger and British TV presenter Lisa Snowdon, before settling down with lawyer Amal Alamuddin.
She is the mother of his children and the couple have been married for 11 years.
They have homes near Reading, Berks and in Kentucky, US.
It is clear that George is very content, unlike his latest character.
He says of the fictional Jay Kelly: “He regrets his relationship with his father. He regrets the relationship with his kids. “He regrets the relationship with the women in his life and not spending enough time with people you love. I don’t have much of that. I mean, I have kids that still like me.”
Even so, fans might have some difficulty separating fiction from reality when they see George in his latest role.
He is, after all, playing a Hollywood star who has experienced plenty of ups and downs.
When Noah Baumbach, who is married to Barbie director Greta Gerwig, wrote the script, he thought George was the natural choice for the lead role.
But the actor hopes he did not see any of Kelly’s nasty streak in him.
People will be like, ‘Oh, you’re just playing yourself in this’. And I go, ‘Well, I hope not, because the guy’s a d***’
George Clooney
He jokes: “People will be like, ‘Oh, you’re just playing yourself in this’. And I go, ‘Well, I hope not, because the guy’s a d***’.
‘I was scared’
“But, you know, maybe they’re telling me something. When he said, ‘I wrote this with you in mind,’ I was like, ‘F*** you’.”
This will only be George’s seventh movie in the past ten years. He has not received many scripts that interested him — and some of the roles he did take failed to “challenge” him.
That includes the 2024 Apple+ action comedy Wolfs that he made with Brad Pitt and the romcom Ticket To Paradise with Julia Roberts in 2022.
George says: “For the last ten years or so, for the most part, I was directing because I was more interested in telling stories and I wanted to continue to be a storyteller. But the parts I was getting offered weren’t all that interesting.
“And so I hadn’t really been in a film. I did a couple of movies. I did a movie with Julia Roberts and I did a movie with Brad, which were fun and they’re fun to work with and people that I know. But it’s not challenging yourself.
“We know what the audience wants delivered for those films.”
Neither of those movies were well received by reviewers and George hasn’t had a critically-acclaimed film since 2016’s Hail, Caesar!
Out of the nine movies he has directed, Good Night, And Good Luck was the biggest success, picking up Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominations at the 2006 awards.
And while 2014’s The Monuments Men was a box-office hit, other offerings such as Leatherheads in 2008 lost money.
George is sanguine about any setbacks he has faced. “I was friends with Gregory Peck and I was friends with Paul Newman. Even those guys, and they were the biggest movie stars in the world, even their careers don’t just go like that,” he explains pointing upwards.
Making a rollercoaster motion, he continues: “Their careers do this, that’s how they ride. And my career has had many of those, many failures and many things that I wish I’d done better.”
I was friends with Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Even those guys, and they were the biggest movie stars in the world, even their careers don’t just go upwards. My career has had many failures
George has taken risks by getting up on stage on Broadway, recreating Good Night, And Good Luck as a play earlier this year.
It received five Tony nominations, including best actor for the star himself.
Not bad for a man who struggled to remember the script.
He admits: “I hadn’t done a play in 40 years. And so I was nervous. And every night, you know, I was worried because as you get older, it’s hard to remember your lines.
