Eamonn Holmes’ Biggest Feuds as GB News Colleagues Grow Tired of His Irritability

It’s fair to say that Eamonn Holmes has had a tough few years.

A divorce from his beloved wife Ruth Langsford, a plethora of health problems, financial and tax woes and the pressures of work would be a lot of anyone to handle.

And some of those who he works with at GB News, where he hosts the breakfast show, recently told The Daily Mail that he is often ‘in a foul mood’ and ‘increasingly clashing with colleagues’ amid the turbulent time in his personal life

It comes as he struggles to navigate the financial woes that he says have ruined him.

Eamonn confessed last week that he is being made to pay a further £250,000 for an outstanding tax bill after HMRC demanded back pay from when he claimed to be a freelancer, with the authority insisting he wasn’t during his days hosting Sky’s Sunrise morning show.

Sources say the breakfast star, 65, now regularly snaps under the mounting pressure, despite moving on with therapist girlfriend Katie Alexander, 43, with insiders admitting he is ‘in a difficult place’. 

A source said: ‘He’s in a foul mood, and everyone behind the scenes feels it. He is clashing with people all the time. People’s patience is wearing a bit thin.’

And it’s not the first time it’s been clear Eamonn has struggled to get on with others as he has had a series of well-documented feuds over the years…

Phillip Schofield

Eamonn Holmes and Phillip Schofield have been locked in an ongoing feud since Phil’s departure from ITV over an affair with a younger male colleague.

Eamonn, has openly shared his dislike of the Cast Away star, 63, with the pair’s warring words sparking a feud that’s been dubbed one of the biggest in showbusiness.

According to The Mirror, Phillip believes Eamonn’s ‘personal vendetta’ against him comes from being axed from the This Morning Friday slot.

A friend of Phillip’s told the publication that Eamonn was ‘consumed with jealousy that Friday rated poorly compared to the rest of the week’.

It has also been claimed Eamonn was upset that Phillip never messaged him after he and his now estranged wife Ruth were axed from the ITV daytime show.

During his Channel 5 series Cast Away, Phillip slammed an ITV colleague who ‘threw him under the bus,’ and a source previously told The Sun that he was referring to Eamonn.

However, a source close to Eamonn told the Daily Mail: ‘Phillip is going around trying to get people to feel sorry for him when the reality is he’s brought everything that’s happened upon himself.

‘He just needs to own it and stop trying to hit out at everyone else. Eamonn has no relationship with Phillip these days. They’re not friends. 

‘But his conscience is clear over everything that has happened in the past between them.’

Fiona Phillips 

It had previously been claimed Fiona and Eamonn ‘couldn’t stand each other’ during their days on GMTV.

The journalist, 64, who is married to ITV boss Martin Frizell, presented the breakfast show with co-host Eamonn, 60, between 1997 and 2005. 

It was reported that This Morning boss Martin, 61, clashed with Eamonn and his wife Ruth in the run-up to the General Election, which allegedly led him to drop the couple from their Friday slot following months of tension.

In 2018, Fiona also claimed she was paid less than her sidekick, despite being dubbed the ‘queen of breakfast TV’ in the late 90s. 

The TV star said she was ‘a relative pauper’ compared with her ‘on-screen king Eamonn Holmes’ in her Daily Mirror column.

The mother-of-two, who anchored the programme for 12 years, also insisted her pregnancy was deemed a ‘nuisance’ and ‘an inconvenience’ by TV bosses.

Fiona explained at the time: ‘Monetarily I was well adrift of my on-screen partner who also had ‘perks’ that I clearly wasn’t deemed worthy of.

‘I even had to fight for maternity pay after being told by bosses when I broke it to them that I was pregnant that ”viewers don’t like seeing pregnant women on TV, especially early in the morning”.’

Despite the gender pay gap, the former Strictly Come Dancing star has always insisted she and Eamonn are amicable.

New reports however, have claimed her long-term partner Martin and Eamonn aren’t on good terms after he replaced the ITV star and his co-host Ruth with Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary.

A bust-up over the proposed gift of a Christmas bauble to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is said to have sowed the seed for the departure of the couple from the daytime hit.

According to The Mail on Sunday, Eamonn locked horns with Martin after Nicola contacted producers to say she wanted to present the lively duo with a traditional Scottish tree decoration during her interview.

Martin reportedly agreed with an idea to give the politician a gift in return and the show’s art department was tasked with creating a This Morning-themed bauble in advance of the discussion – the last of a series with the main party leaders.

Eamonn is believed to have objected, claiming it broke strict impartiality rules for broadcasters in the weeks before an election, with his intervention – which took place shortly before Nicola’s arrival – enraging Martin.

‘Martin exploded, saying he was the editor and he decided what happened on the show,’ said a source of what became known to staff as ‘Bauble-gate’.

‘He then refused to go to Eamonn’s dressing room for the pre-show meeting with the presenters. 

‘The producer was having to run back and forth between the news room and the dressing room to convey Eamonn’s fury to Martin and Martin’s fury to Eamonn.’

The former Sky News Sunrise star eventually won the argument, but insiders believe it marked the ‘beginning of the end’ for him on the show.

The source sought to play down the row, stating: ‘What is one person’s argument might be another person’s debate.’

But an eyewitness said of the clash: ‘It was absolutely extraordinary and all over a couple of baubles. Things were never quite the same again.’

In 2020 Eamonn and Ruth were axed from their presenting roles after 14 years on the series’ sofa. 

Anthea Turner 

Earlier this year Eamonn reunited with his former nemesis Anthea Turner for a sweet snap posted to Instagram after the pair squashed their 10-year feud.

The pair’s relationship famously nosedived while they hosted GMTV in the 1990s, culminating in Eamonn issuing bosses with an ultimatum which preceded Anthea’s departure from the show.

They eventually made up in 2005 and even appeared on This Morning together in 2018 with the presenter’s ex Ruth.

And in a wholesome photo on social media, the duo looked like the best of pals as they grinned for the camera, with Eamonn putting a hand over his former colleague’s shoulder.

The former This Morning presenter captioned the post: ‘We’re the same age @antheaturner and I and have had careers of similar length but my paper round must have been harder than hers! Top Girl’

Anthea quit GMTV in 1996 and was replaced by Fiona Phillips, but a decade after their fallout, Eamonn, who famously branded her ‘Princess Tippy Toes’ reached out to bury the hatchet. 

She still looks back on the saga ruefully and in 2021 she told The Sun: ‘Revenge is a dish best served sweet. Best of all, I’m still here. I thought it was sad. I just wanted to do the job I enjoyed, but unfortunately the roles have to be labelled.

‘I was always asked if I was ambitious and, if I said yes, I was made out to be a ruthless person who would walk over anybody to get where I wanted. It would be said that I was hormonal, or I was stamping my feet.’

She added: ‘And yet ask that question to a man, and if he’s ambitious, we think, “What a guy”. You’d never hear anyone say that about Eamonn or Phillip Schofield. No, they’re just doing their job.’

She went on to say that nobody ‘likes injustice’ or wishes to be ‘misinterpreted’, adding ‘It hurts, it really hurts’.

As she opened up about the past, she remembered reading about herself and thinking she ‘didn’t know that person’.

And she noted that if it had occurred in the present day, she could have used social media and have had an ‘immediate chance’ to reply to criticism.

At the height of the tension at work, she told how she felt physically sick at the thought of coming to work in the ‘hostile’ environment.

Back in 2018, Anthea appeared on This Morning with Eamonn and Ruth and they let bygones be bygones as they addressed their famous feud.

When talking about if you can be friends with an ex, Eamonn said: ‘Well you are an ex of mine and we’re on good terms, some people think we hate each other.’

Anthea joked: ‘Ruth’s not bothered at all.’

Ruth replied: ‘No, we’re married, we’re properly married’, while Anthea quipped: ‘Yes, but we were on screen husband and wife.’

She continued: ‘There is a fine line between hate and love isn’t there? We were chatting in the break, Eamonn and I are a bit lazy and it’s easier to stay friends’, with Ruth Langsford adding it was ‘nice’ they could be.

Donny Osmond

Back in July Eamonn revealed a secret feud he had with a pop star in a conversation on live TV.

An unearthed video from the daily programme back in 2024 saw the presenter sit alongside co-host Ellie Costello and Paul Coyte.

In the clip, Eamonn opened up about how he used to dislike Donny Osmond when he was a child.

He recalled an incident where he met the singer while he was having a nose bleed.

Eamonn said: ‘I have never had a nose bleed in my life, except I did once. It was pouring like a tap… over Donny. 

‘It was pouring like a tap and Donny was presenting a programme called, I think it was called the Pyramid Game and he came into my dressing room and I was bleeding and panicking like mad into the sink.

‘And I got this rub on the head and he said, ‘Hey buddy, don’t worry’.’

Eamonn then demonstrated with Ellie what Donny did before adding: ‘Basically he says to me, ‘This happens to me all the time,’ he was probably fibbing but anyway he made me feel very good and I felt bad because when I was 14, I hated him.’

The trio laughed and Ellie commented: ‘And he turned out to be really nice.’

His son Niall 

The Daily Mail revealed this summer that Eamonn has had a terrible fall-out with Niall, the youngest of his three children with first wife Gabrielle.

And more devastatingly, Niall has sided with his stepmother over his own father, following the couple’s split.

Ruth and Eamonn announced a year ago that they were to part after 27 years as a couple, and 14 years of marriage.

Before they went their separate ways, Niall, 32, worked for the couple brokering deals for endorsements or personal appearances.

Those who know Eamonn say he and his son had a ‘blazing row’ in summer.

One source told Katie Hind at the time: ‘Niall and Eamonn had a massive fall-out, there was a huge row following his split from Ruth. Things were said between them that cannot be unsaid. It must be heartbreaking for Eamonn.

‘Eamonn accused him of siding with Ruth while Niall hit back about his dad’s behaviour. This all happened more than a year ago and they haven’t spoken since. Niall adores Ruth.

‘It was all very tricky at the beginning of the split. Lots of things were said behind closed doors so Niall knows what really happened, things which are not in the public domain, and he has made a call. Eamonn is, of course, upset and is sharing news of the fall-out with his friends now.

‘He’s still close to his eldest son Declan – who has two little girls, Emilia and Isabella – and daughter Rebecca, but they have been caught in the cross-fire of his falling out with Niall. The feud doesn’t look like it will resolve itself anytime soon.’

It’s also understood that Jack, 23, the son he and Ruth have together, has sided with his mother. 

Before announcing the split, Ruth set Jack up in a flat in Salford. A source said: ‘Things remain strained between him and his father.’

Lorraine Kelly

During his rants about HMRC and his tax issues, Eamonn also argued that telly star Lorraine Kelly managed to avoid similar tax issues by arguing she was playing a part on TV.

 He explained how Lorraine is deemed to be freelance because she’s not really Lorraine Kelly.

‘I would say, you know, I’m an actor who plays the part of Eamonn Holmes, except I’m not, I’m the same off screen as I am on screen,’ he said.

‘There’s no different persona with me.’

David Cassidy 

Back in 2015 David lost his cool during an interview with Eamonn, accusing the presenter of ‘rubbishing’ him after he was questioned about his financial situation.

The singer, who died in 2017, appeared on This Morning via live video link following the news that he had filed for bankruptcy and sold off his Florida home.

But he gave Eamonn and his wife Ruth Langsford some sass as they attempted to quiz him about the chapter 11 filing, but blamed his terse answers on a poor link that meant he couldn’t hear them properly.  

David became offended by Eamonn’s questioning when he asked him if the sale of his mansion meant he could now pay off his debts.

In reply he hit back, asking: ‘Are you trying to rubbish me?’ 

He added: ‘When you declare bankruptcy in this country, it’s something you do in order to reorganise what you have, your assets, so I’m not going to discuss that.’

When Ruth remarked that the star had been through a lot, he replied testily: ‘Yes, I have and I still have fantastic assets’.

The uncomfortable chat continued when the female presenter asked if he was glad to have the support of his fans after such a difficult journey. 

‘Don’t interrupt me,’ David snapped back – telling her to ‘wait’ nine times in a row, when she voiced her agreement with him.

David’s attitude may have been influenced by the technical difficulties he was experiencing. ‘What’s difficult for me with this transaction that we’re doing here is that I hear echoes and it’s very difficult to concentrate,’ he said.

Ruth continued the conversation by asking if he would be touring the UK soon.

‘Probably not,’ said David. ‘The problem is there is a 20 per cent foreign entertainer’s tax and with everything else that it costs to go there. 

‘No, I don’t think so. I’d love to, but I ended up making 630 US dollars (£408) last time I went there, so it didn’t make a lot of sense.’

His fans, he maintained, have been ‘incredible’ and ‘sensational’.

‘I guess I’ll have to do it, just via the internet,’ he said.

Concluding the interview, Eamonn asked if he was sad to sell the plush mansion seen in the background, which David is auctioning for $1.8million (£1.2million).

‘It had nothing to do with declaring bankruptcy, that was a totally separate issue. I’m doing it because I’m in the middle of a divorce,’ he replied.