ALISON BOSHOFF: How Eamonn Holmes shared his divorce problems with his famous mistress

Eamon Holmes’ romance with blonde Katie Alexander appears to be getting more serious, with talk that they may be moving in together after a pleasant cruise holiday earlier this month.

However, it turns out that after the recent end of his marriage to TV presenter Ruth Langsford, he is comforted by another blonde – former “professional lover” Sarah Symonds.

Symonds, 54, told me she had been in email contact with Eamonn for several years and that he had recently confided in her about his health and divorce problems.

She said: “When he and Ruth announced they were splitting up, he sent me a number of dour emails saying his health was poor and everything was difficult.

– Of course, I expressed sympathy. Then I saw he had a girlfriend and I felt a little stupid offering support when he had a woman on his arm.

“As for his health, honey, it couldn’t be that bad if he was having an affair!” She added: “I mean, I really didn’t think he had it in him.

“You have to admire his impertinence, don’t you, in a wheelchair, with his mistress, looking like the cat that got the cream?

“I was flattered that he took the time to strike up an email friendship with me, but I wondered why he was so close to someone who ran a support group for lovers. I always openly say who and what I am.

The pair first connected when she contacted Eamonn and asked if she could come to Sky News to write newspaper reviews. It never happened, but they kept in touch.

Symonds, who allegedly had an affair with chef Gordon Ramsay between 2001 and 2008 and runs Lovers Anonymous, said he had shared with her his opinions about former This Morning colleague Phillip Schofield and Huw Edwards in recent years.

Eamonn and Ruth, both 64, announced in May that they were splitting. They had been married for 14 years and had a 22-year-old son, Jacek. Ruth is believed to have discovered contact between her husband and Mrs Alexander which made remaining in the marriage “unbearable”.

Eamonn first met divorcee Katie after she commented on one of his social media posts in 2015. A year before they announced their breakup, he gave her tickets to Beyonce and Manchester United shows and a trip to a safari park.

Now he and Ruth are divorcing, and she has hired lawyer Catherine Costley, a protégé of Baroness Fiona Shackleton. Shackleton was the lawyer chosen by King Charles and Sir Paul McCartney during their divorce. Ruth remained in the £3.5 million marital home in Weybridge, Surrey, and Eamonn moved to a large flat in nearby Richmond.

Speaking at the TRIC Awards in June, Eamonn said: “It’s too early to say anything, but I hope we can still be friends.” Eamonn had hip replacement surgery in 2016 and in 2021 had three discs inserted in his back. He was also injured falling down the stairs and is unable to walk on his own.

Mrs Symonds said: “Ruth has never looked sexier or happier. I love it when unhappy spouses divorce and then both can shine. Why live in misery? He adds: “If his lover ever needs advice, he knows where to find me.”

Katherine Ryan confused by sausage roll

Comedian Katherine Ryan was amazed when she first saw cake – a sausage roll – at the age of 11. She grew up in a home with celiac disease and stated that there was a “pathological avoidance of wheat, barley, rye and oats” in our house that she had no idea what it was. “I thought, ‘Why are you eating a package of this meat?’

Dynamit Dębicki saved Korona from Fayed’s fiasco

Elizabeth Debicki thanked “The Crown” writer Peter Morgan from the Emmys stage when she won the award for her portrayal of Princess Diana earlier this month.

But Morgan actually owes a debt of gratitude to the 34-year-old actress because she saved him from even more embarrassment over his portrayal of Mohamed Al Fayed on the show.

In the sixth series of “The Crown”, Morgan showed the head of Harrods – already the subject of numerous sexual abuse complaints – as a kind and even fatherly man to the princess.

Many of the women who took part in the BBC’s exposé of rape and assault, titled Al Fayed: Predator At Harrods, said they chose to express their anger at how he was portrayed in the Netflix show.

But Morgan said earlier this year: “If it weren’t for finding Elizabeth Debicki, I’m not sure I would have told this story through Diana. I could do it through the Al Fayeds because I thought looking at it from (the point of view of) an outsider, racially discriminated against, would seem more contemporary.

But then, of course, Elżbieta Debicki appeared. Ultimately, I decided to do it as a mash-up through the eyes of Al Fayed and Diana.

Morgan, Netflix and Left Bank Pictures declined to comment on Al Fayed or his role.

Will it end in a sequel?

Bad news for Blake Lively: Justin Baldoni owns the rights to the ‘This Ends With Us’ sequel.

The film, which starred Lively and Baldoni, was a huge box office success despite a PR car crash sparked by Lively’s apparent behavior towards Baldoni, who directed and starred in the film based on the book by Colleen Hoover.

I hear he’s in no rush to release the sequel to It Starts With Us. Both books feature the same characters, so a big decision will have to be made about the main character…

How Stan collected two stones to play Donald

Chiseled Sebastian Stan escaped from a “doll factory”, claims director Ali Abbasi, who dressed him in a blonde wig to play Donald Trump in the film The Apprentice. Stan, Bucky Barnes and Captain America in Chris Evans’ Marvel movies have added more than two stone in a matter of weeks to portray the former US president.

Abbasi notes, “In my book, if you’re a handsome, sensitive guy in 20 movies in a row, that’s not a star to me, you’re just one of many in Ken’s doll factory.”

David Mitchell reveals hopes for Upstart Crow’s revival

David Mitchell was disappointed when the comedy series Upstart Crow, written by Ben Elton and starring William Shakespeare, was broadcast on the BBC.

But now there is hope for revival, David reveals. “Ben Elton wants to write more episodes and the BBC says, ‘Not at the moment, but maybe at some point,’” he says. “I would like to do more. I’m very proud of the show and think Ben Elton is a genius.

David, who made his debut as TV’s newest detective in Ludwig earlier this week, starred alongside Harry Enfield and Liza Tarbuck in Upstart Crow, which ran for three series on BBC1 between 2016 and 2020.

Depp has a reputation for being an artistic wasteland

Johnny Depp is banking on his reputation as an artistic slacker in his new film Modi, which is mainly about the artist Amedeo Modigliani who, as Depp puts it, is “carried to Shanghai by a wave” – ​​or knocked out by cheap alcohol.

The film, which premiered this week at the San Sebastian Film Festival, chronicles a three-day slice of the artist-hero’s life while on drugs, drinking and arguing with his girlfriend. This is Depp’s second film as director, 27 years after he directed “Brave,” which was critically acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival.

Payday for Holly’s replacement

Loveable TV personality Josie Gibson made a splash with her troubles on This Morning. Reports filed last week show that by December 2023, when Gibson was deputizing in the absence of Holly Willoughby, her assets had increased from £247,000 to £470,000.

Influencer Lauryn Goodman complains about artificial grass

Lauryn Goodman still complains about AstroTurf. The “influencer”, who has two children with married footballer Kyle Walker, asked for £32,000 to lay artificial grass in her garden. She said on the podcast that she planned to tell her children Kairo and Kinara: “Your dad didn’t want to give us AstroTurf, your dad didn’t want us to have air conditioning… I asked, she said no.”

She is particularly furious because Walker’s four children with his wife Annie live in a £3.4million mansion in Cheshire which has artificial turf. However, I was told it was already there when they bought the place.

Singer-songwriter Wombles praises Sting’s sex appeal

Sting’s legendary sex appeal was praised by Mike Batt, a singer-songwriter best known for his work with The Wombles.

In his new autobiography The Closest Thing To Crazy, Batt recalls recording the album in the Netherlands while The Police put down Zenyatta Mondatta in 1980. He says the band let him share the cocaine and gave him a ride to the party. “It’s amazing how Sting came in, picked the most beautiful girl in the room and disappeared upstairs. I was very impressed.