Eamonn Holmes's Biography

Eamonn Holmes was born in Belfast on 3 December 1959. His father was a carpet-fitter and an amateur footballer.

He was educated at St Malachy's College and the Belfast College of Business.

Holmes began his broadcasting career as a farming reporter at Ulster Television, and at 21 he became the youngest anchor in regional television, when he hosted Good Evening Ulster.

Eamonn Holmes left Ulster TV to work at the BBC in Manchester.

In 1986 Holmes was involved in the launch of daytime television on BBC1 working on the phone-in programme Open Air.

Holmes went on to present a range of TV and radio programmes including Holiday, GMTV's Breakfast show, Songs of Praise, National Lottery Jet Set, Sudo-Q, Hard Spell, as well as Sky News's Sunrise programme.

One of his longest stints was as co-presenter on GMTV. Again, he was involved in the launch in January 1993. On GMTV he and Fiona Phillips had a long-running presenting partnership, but over 12 years after his first broadcast for GMTV, Eamonn Holmes stepped-down.

The Guardian quoted Eamonn Holmes's contrasting views of his co-presenters Fiona Phillips and Anthea Turner:

"I think Fiona Phillips and I were the best double act presenting team there has been on telly ...the sad thing for Anthea ... anybody could see right from the start that this was the wrong girl in the wrong programme."

Eamonn Holmes is a keen fan of Manchester United. In an interview with the Telegraph, Holmes revealed how on his first visit to Old Trafford, he was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

He was mainly attracted to Manchester United because of George Best and Holmes opened the service at George Best's funeral.

Eamonn Holmes has also been a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio Five Live.

In 2006, Eamonn Holmes published an autobiography, This is My Life.

In November 2006, Eamonn Holmes hosted a quiz show on Fox in the USA called The Rich List, however it was axed after just one episode.

In his column in The People, Eamonn Holmes compared himself to Shilpa Shetty:

"She drinks 10 glasses of hot water, never eats after 8pm, always has eight hours sleep and works out at home and in the gym.

"Me? I pack in 15-hour working days eating on the run. There's a moral in there somewhere."

In March 2009, Eamonn Holmes got engaged to Ruth Langsford after they had been together for 12 years. They married the following year.

In March 2010 Eamonn Holmes was made the Satellite/Digital TV Personality of the year at the TRIC awards.

On 1 September 2016, it was revealed that Eamonn Holmes would be leaving his role as anchor of Sky News's Sunrise.

In the 2018 New Year's Honours, Eamonn Holmes was made an OBE.

Ruth and Eamonn's numerous credits together include the Channel Five live entertainment show Do The Right Thing, which also features Esther Rantzen and Michael Underwood

In December 2021 it was revealed that Eamonn Holmes was to host his own show on GB News.