How Ruth Langsford’s eye-watering wage means she beats Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield as top daytime TV earner
WHEN Eamonn Holmes left This Morning last year, there was much talk of who would replace him and wife Ruth Langsford.
The couple had covered Fridays and school holidays for Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton, and latterly Holly Willoughby, since 2006.
So when Eamonn left the ITV show under a cloud in December, viewers wondered if it meant losing his partner of 26 years as well. Well, quite the opposite has occurred.
Ruth has instead emerged as the queen of daytime telly, with new accounts showing she is almost out-earning Holly and Phil put together.
Tax records for her personal limited company Hey Ho Ltd suggest that last year she earned £2,092,863.
Holly’s Roxy Media Ltd’s tax bill suggests she made £1,373,695. Phil paid tax for Fistral Productions Ltd that indicates he earned £789,542.
A source said: “Ruth has had the last laugh here. She’s proven the talk wrong that she and Eamonn were pale and stale. Her pay from ITV might not be as high as Holly and Phil’s but her earning power outside of the show is vast.
“She has her gig on shopping channel QVC which is huge, plus her work on Loose Women.
“Now she is free to make even more shows for other channels. Plus she is always asked to sign up for commercial work and has appeared in adverts for everything from blood circulation boosters to bingo games.”
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Tax documents give some idea of a celebrity’s earnings but they do not always detail all of their wealth.
But Ruth has built a solid fan base in her 23 years at ITV. She started out on the channel as a regular panellist on Loose Women, later anchoring the show.
Ruth became a guest presenter on This Morning in 2000 then was made permanent in 2006 when she co-hosted with Phillip - making her the longest serving presenter on the programme.
Later that year, the show brought in Eamonn as her co-host every Friday.
She has a string of other shows to her name, including TV Travel Shop, Langsford Late, Zoo Story, Lose A Stone In Four Weeks and appeared on Strictly in 2017 alongside Anton du Beke.
Eamonn now presents the breakfast show on GB News. Ruth said of his change: “Eamonn can turn his hand to anything.”
Step into Al's mad world
IT’S not often you’ll see suspended boats, boob cushions, AstroTurf walls and taxidermy on BBC One.
But Alan Carr has promised all that and more in the new series of his show, Interior Design Masters.
He said: “So many standout designs! There was one moment where the designer literally demolished the space because she wanted a total transformation.
“I mean, it was a pile of rubble and dust, and she only had two days to complete it.”
“But that’s what makes great viewing, people taking chances and creative risks.”
This third series of the show marks its move from BBC Two to BBC One.
Michelle Ogundehin and Matthew Williamson help Alan with judging. He added: “I say to them, ‘go for it, life’s too short to be beige!’"
My baby steps - Phoebe
SHE shot to fame as Bridgerton’s dainty debutante, but Phoebe Dynevor has relished stepping out of her comfort zone for the second series of the Netflix smash.
The daughter of Corrie’s Sally had to find her maternal instinct because her character Daphne had a baby at the end of season one.
Chatting on Instagram, Phoebe said: “You will meet the bubba in season two. It’s the prettiest bubba I’ve ever seen in my life. We had two twins and we were so lucky. They were so well behaved. It was sort of a joy to be a mumma.
“Daphne has just really come into her own. She’s a woman, she’s got a husband but she’s very independent. So yeah, it was so fun coming back.”
Keeley in MP drama with Matt
REAL-LIFE married couple Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes are to play husband and wife in a new drama.
The Succession actor will play disgraced Labour minister John Stonehouse while It’s A Sin actress Keeley will play his wife Barbara in the ITV three-parter.
Stonehouse will be based on the life and times of the MP, who was a high-flying member of Harold Wilson's government before he faked his own death amid a fraud probe. He disappeared without a trace from a beach in Florida in 1974.
Matthew said it was “the stuff of legend”, adding: “I’ve always been intrigued by what motivated him to fake his own death, and leave behind the family he loved and doted upon and a promising political career.”
Strictly nun dancing
SEEING serious documentary maker Stacey Dooley in sparkles on Strictly Come Dancing was enough of a shock – but she’s ready to surprise us again as she spends a month living as a nun.
BBC docu Stacey Dooley - Inside The Convent will follow her stay with the Sisters at St Hilda’s Priory in Whitby.
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She will sleep, eat, sing with and work alongside the nuns to learn what their lives are like in the 21st Century.
Stacey said: “Spending time with those you wouldn’t usually forces you to see things from an entirely different perspective.”