Exclusive: Ruth Langsford reveals the single item every woman needs in her wardrobe in 2026

After navigating her separation from Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Langsford is urging midlife women to step into 2026 with a fearless, limitless attitude to life, fashion and ambition.

In an exclusive interview with woman&home, the 65-year-old TV host shared empowering words, saying, "There is this notion, which I hate, that you’re too old to wear certain things.

"I go, ‘Says who?’ and that’s what I would like to stop women thinking. You’re never too old for anything, whether it’s fashion, whether it’s life, whether it’s doing something that you want to try that you’ve never done before. You’re never too old.”

Ruth, who has designed clothing collections for live shopping leader QVC for almost a decade, underlined her rhetoric by encouraging women of any age to buy one staple item for their wardrobe this season - a denim jacket.

She said, “If you think you’re too old for a denim jacket, you’re not! You’re just too old for an uncomfortable denim jacket. That’s why I stopped wearing them but now I’ve developed my own, which is really stretchy and lightweight.

“A denim jacket can make an outfit look really cool, very quickly. One lady messaged me recently to say she’d just bought one for her friend for her 80th birthday. She sent me a picture of her friend and she looked amazing!”

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As well as her fashion designing role, Ruth has been a staple on ITV’s daytime programme Loose Women since the show launched in 1999. Part of the original presenting line-up alongside Kaye Adams, Nadia Sawalha and Jane Moore, she went on to embrace other telly commitments, including hosting This Morning alongside her former TV host husband Eamonn Holmes, 66, who she split from in May 2024.

But as one of the show’s longest-serving and most iconic panellists, Ruth admitted that age and experience has allowed her to remain calm amidst the uncertainty of the programme’s future. She said, “I never feel settled because I’m self-employed. However, as I’ve got older, I try not to fret about it. I’ve lost my job many times during my career - through a programme finishing, a new head of a department making changes, or a whole company closing.

When I was with Television South West, we lost our franchise and everybody lost their jobs. At the time, you panic and think you’re never going to work again. Yet here I still am. All I can say to the young people who are losing their jobs or going through changes no matter what your job is, ‘This is difficult, but you will be OK.’ Sadly in most industries there is no job security anymore, nothing stays the same and we all have to adapt and move on, It’s not easy but we survive."

As she strides forward into a brand new year, which will see her releasing her very first semi- autobiographical book, Feeling Fabulous, Ruth - who appears on the January issue cover of woman&home - took a moment to reflect on some poignant ‘last time’ moments to cause a ripple in her world.

Revealing the last time she laughed until she cried, Ruth said, “With my co presenter Jackie on QVC who asked me a very innocent question which sounded very rude… it was about a thumbhole! (find it on my Instagram)”

Then recalling the last time she felt truly starstruck, she said, "When I met King Charles, well he was actually the Prince of Wales at the time. He and Camila came for a tour of ITV and spoke to me about Strictly and how much she loves the show. He told me he couldn’t dance!”

Speaking of the moment she last felt really proud of herself in a non-professional capacity, Ruth - whose 94-year-old mum Joan lives with Alzheimer’s disease - declared: “Doing the Memory Walk for the Alzheimer's Society. I’ve done it every year for the last 15 years and it’s a wonderful, often emotional but very uplifting day.”

You can read Ruth's full interview in the January 2026 issue of woma&home, on shelves now.