Eamonn Holmes has revealed his funeral and burial arrangements, which will take place far away from his wife Ruth Langsford.
The 63-year-old went on Let’s Start Talking, a podcast hosted by Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan, where he discussed sadness and what his own funeral will look like.
Eamonn, a GB News presenter who regrettably had to skip his mother’s burial last year owing to health issues, stated that he and Ruth had been clear about their death arrangements with one other.
While he wishes to be buried in Belfast, Ruth wishes to be cremated and laid to rest in Surrey.
‘We have got a family plot in Belfast where my mum and dad are and there’s room for four more others,’ Eamonn explained.
‘Ruth would rather be somewhere anonymous in Surrey, where neither she nor I have relations, so no one is ever going to visit us.
‘She wants to be cremated and I don’t want to be cremated.
‘I very definitely know my view.’
Eamonn went on to say that he and Ruth don’t argue about their plans, saying: ‘She doesn’t care – she’s not religious, and she’s not interested in sentimentality.’
In other news, Eamonn discussed his funeral arrangements, stating he wanted everybody to wear a “uniform,” with women wearing “black veils.”
‘I am quite clear about what I want. I want people to be dressed in black, like a uniform,’ he said.
‘Sometimes it’s a dog dinner when people turn up in overcoats, and T-shirts and different colours.
‘And I think “for goodness sake, people used to dress to go to church.”‘
He went on to say he wants a ‘solemn’ event, adding: ‘I want crying.’
Eamonn continued by saying he wants his funeral to take place in the church where he was baptised, where his mother and father also got married, ‘with plenty of incense’.
‘And then I’ve got my brothers, they would carry my coffin,’ he added.
‘I would either like a record or an Elvis impersonator to sing as the final song, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
‘I think it is a great song to reflect on when times get rough.’
Due to health concerns, Eamonn was unable to attend his mother Josie’s burial in November 2022.
Eamonn lost his father Leonard in 1991 and stated in his letter that his mother had been’reunited’ with him, calling it the family’s “only consolation.”
After suffering a fall while recovering from major back surgery, Eamonn spoke virtually to the congregation at the funeral, saying: ‘My name is Eamonn and I am the second son – my other brothers being Emmett, Connor and Leonard Holmes – of Josie.
‘They are all here today and I love and respect them so much for what they constantly do for mum.’
‘Unfortunately, I can only be here virtually but I am watching it on the television,’ he added, according to The Belfast Telegraph.
Eamonn also stated that his mother had given him her ‘approval and understanding’ for not attending the funeral in person, even cracking a joke about it.
‘A few weeks ago she said to me she didn’t want me at her funeral anyway,’ he recalled.
‘That is what she said… “Because you would just turn out to be the the fella in the big picture — it would all be about you.”‘
He also paid tribute to her as ‘the best’, saying that ‘we could not have had a better mummy, and daddy could not have had a better wife.’
