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Eamonn Holmes (b. 1959) is a television presenter in the UK.
Biography
Holmes was born in Belfast on December 3, 1959. He has three children with his teenage-sweetheart first wife, Gabrielle Holmes, and has one son with his current partner, Ruth Langsford. He has been unable to marry her as his first marriage is yet to be annulled. He lives in Surrey.
Career
In the 1980s he presented the evening news programme Good Evening Ulster on Ulster Television and later in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1. He is to date best known for presenting GMTV from 1993 until 2005. He has also presented Songs of Praise.
He started at GMTV since it began in 1993. His relationship with co-host Anthea Turner, from June 1994 until December 1996, had its ups and downs, though was distinctly characterised by the frequent downs towards the end of the troubled breakfast-time partnership. In early 1996, after publicly criticising Anthea and her pushy nature as Princess Tippy Toes, he gave an ultimatum to the GMTV management that they either sacked Anthea, or he would leave. They decided to sack Anthea. Her replacement was Fiona Phillips. He had an infamous interview with David Blaine on 29th August 2001, where Blaine was his monosyllabic bizarre best. Eamonn left GMTV after asking for a pay-rise of more than £500,000 a year for three days a week, which was refused after the management had noticed that when Eamonn and Fiona were on holiday, the ratings showed no difference.
Holmes joined Sky News in October 2005 to present the new-look Sunrise programme. Other commitments include the long-running National Lottery programme Jet Set, a Five Live programme on Saturday mornings a column in a national newspaper and presenting on London radio station Magic 105.4 FM. In September and October 2005 he appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, progressing through to Sale of the Century before getting knocked out. In the period leading up to Christmas 2005, he presented the lunchtime quiz show, SudoQ, that combined contestants' abilities to complete a Sudoku puzzle and to answer general knowledge questions.
In December 2005 he was the host of the funeral of football legend George Best. He is a lifelong fan of Manchester United. Eamonn Holmes' autobiography is released in May 2006; he is also expected to host a new teatime quiz show on ITV entitled The Rich List in the near future.
He has been parodied in the magazine Viz in relation to his weight and an inferred predilection for pies. Even so, he appeared in their unsuccessful 2004 film, Fat Slags.
In March 2006, Eamonn co-hosted the BB1 show Get Smarter in a Week, produced by Wild Rover Productions.
On 20th May 2006, Eamonn's National Lottery programme, Jet Set, was invaded by protestors just as the lottery result was being announced.
Publications
His autobiography is called This is MY Life, a reference to another famous Irish Eamonn - Eamonn Andrews. It lifts the lid on GMTV notably with his histrionics with Anthea Turner.
External links
- Official website
- IMDB
- TV Ark
- First day on GMTV on 1st January 1993
- UK Gameshows
- Eamonn's programme is invaded by Fathers 4 Justice on 20th May 2006
- Eamonn leaves GMTV on 27th April 2006