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'I WAS NOT VERY OPTIMISTIC'

Eamonn Holmes reveals fears he would die during double hip operation last year — after news of pal Sir Terry Wogan’s death just hours before surgery

EAMONN Holmes has revealed he feared he would die before his double hip operation last year.

The This Morning presenter, 57, learned just hours before he went under the knife that his pal Sir Terry Wogan had died.

 Eamonn Holmes was scared he would die during his double hip replacement last year
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Eamonn Holmes was scared he would die during his double hip replacement last yearCredit: Rex Features

He told the : "It was very foreboding. I was not very optimistic about the whole thing."

He added that his wife, Ruth Langsford, was worried she'd lose him, and asked Eamonn: "Do you have to have both of them done?"

But of course the surgery went ahead, and when Eamonn woke up, he recalls: "I saw this apparition and it was this beautiful woman, and it was my wife, and I thought, 'This is either heaven or hell'."

 Wife Ruth Langsford was afraid she would lose him, Eamonn says
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Wife Ruth Langsford was afraid she would lose him, Eamonn saysCredit: Getty Images

Months of physiotherapy followed, with Ruth helping to nurse him back to health (though he's joked she only wears a uniform on Fridays).

Eamonn said: "They tell you you'll have rehabilitation, but nobody mentions the C word — the catheters.

"For a week after the operation you've got that in. I could not wee at all. It was awful!"

 He joined Ruth back on This Morning just two months after his surgery
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He joined Ruth back on This Morning just two months after his surgeryCredit: ITV

He continued: "My hips were slightly malformed and my muscles had to be pulled in different places.

"I probably went back to work at Sky too quickly. I just did not feel I was healing and Ruth could see it was taking longer than it should."

"When I came out of hospital I was sleeping all the time."

 Ruth took care of him as he recovered from the operation
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Ruth took care of him as he recovered from the operationCredit: Getty Images

The telly host admits he put off the surgery for years due to his career, after a doctor warned him he would need it when he was 36.

He endured 25 years of hip, leg and back pain, and secretly sat on an inflatable disc when presenting.

Now, he says the surgery has given him a new lease on life.

In a column for the , he warned others: "Having a hip replacement, you will hear good stories and scare stories, even mortality rates... [But] don't be like me and thing you are too young for a new hip. Don't waste your life living in pain."

 

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