Ruth Langsford
Ruth Langsford
Ruth Langsford, 49, presents ITV1’s This Morning on Fridays with her partner Eamonn Holmes. They have one son
“Julia has always taken her older sister duty seriously. My father was an Army man, so we moved around a lot. From the age of eight, we went to boarding school in London and Julia was always on at me about writing letters to our parents.
Our worlds are very different now but because she was like a surrogate mum when we were growing up, we’ve always been very close. When I started out as a freelancer scrabbling around for work, I was jealous of Julia because she had a lot of what I wanted: a husband, a daughter and security.
Twelve years ago my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which made us closer. Julia, my mother and I have supported each other.
What I love about Julia is that she is so thoughtful. She never forgets birthdays, and if I mention I’m nervous about doing a TV interview she always texts or phones me to see how it went. It’s those small gestures that mean so much.”
Call the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Helpline on 0845-3000336 or visit alzheimers.org.uk
Julia Johnson, 52, lives with her husband, Paul, in Lingfield, Surrey. They have one daughter
“Ruth was a bit of a rebel. One evening when I was babysitting, I found her smoking one of Dad’s cigarettes in front of the mirror. She was only eight! She had this devil-may-care attitude, with a crowd of friends and loads of boyfriends.
She never studied very hard at school but she’s done amazingly well, working her way up from being a typist at Television South West. I always saw Ruth as a career girl, and when she had her son, Jack, it definitely made us closer.
I suffer from depression and when I was low a few years ago, Ruth was fantastic. When my confidence had hit rock bottom, she gave me a hug and said, ‘We love you’, which meant an awful lot.”
