AMANDA PLATELL: I owe Ruth Langsford an enormous apology

In May after Ruth Langsford‘s shock announcement that she and Eamonn Holmes were divorcing after 27 years together, we were told the break-up was ‘very much orchestrated by Ruth’ and had left her husband devastated.

I wrote that my sympathies were all with Eamonn. I believed that, plagued by ill health, he was the victim and she had abandoned him for a fun life as a 64-year-old single woman.

Now I’m not so sure and I feel I owe Ruth a wholehearted apology.

For whether abandoned or not, Eamonn, 64, has rapidly struck up an ‘intimate’ relationship with Katie Alexander, 42, an attractive, single, blonde counsellor specialising in ‘grief and betrayals’ who befriended him on social media.

Insiders insist they became intimate only after the break up of his marriage. That it was only then that they become more than friends.

But their friendship began while he was still with Ruth. In February they enjoyed a trip with her family to Woburn Safari Park in Bedford in February. On multiple occasions, Katie stayed at the four-star Brooklands Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey, a 10 minute drive from Eamonn’s marital home.

And now, three months after Ruth and Eamonn’s separation was announced, friendship has blossomed into romance.

Their relationship hit the headlines this week when Katie was spotted sporting a large sparkling diamond ring and rumours abounded they were actually engaged. This was quickly denied by Eamonn, who is said to be keen not to upset Ruth.

This week MailOnline reported Eamonn and Katie had locked horns. She is said to be desperate to go public with their romance, but he wants to delay any announcement for Ruth’s sake.

A source told MailOnline: ‘Katie wants the world to see they’re a couple but Eamonn wants to keep things low key at the moment,’ He reportedly still hopes that he and Ruth can remain friends.

Fat chance of that Eamonn. What must she be feeling now? What agony for her to see you and Katie so close after she spent 27 years with you, 14 of them married.

Now I believe I understand more of what may have happened, I believe that like millions of others, I fell for Eamonn’s victim narrative. All I can do is apologise and and say: ‘Well done Ruth for getting out.’

How brave of Meghan to flash £38,000 worth of jewellery when she landed in Bogota for a tour of Colombia, where street crime has gone up by 78 per cent in recent years.

Lily’s a star but she’s no Audrey

Comparisons are drawn between Emily In Paris’s Lily Collins and Audrey Hepburn, with the actress even dressing up like the movie legend for one scene.

Give the girl a break. Emily is a pretty TV star, Audrey was a screen goddess. It’s not fair on either of them.

As the Sussexes arrived in Colombia, their host, vice president Francia Marquez, said she was moved by their Netflix series and Meghan ‘deserves to tell her story’. What, the story of an opportunist who snares a thicko Prince then coins it in while her husband takes a wrecking ball to the Royal Family?

Westminster wars

• Kemi Badenoch leads the motley crew to replace Rishi Sunak, while an Ipsos poll claims six in ten people don’t care who becomes Tory leader – proving polls can be nonsense. It’s more like nine out of ten.
• Why did Liz Truss storm off stage where she was promoting her book after a banner was unfurled saying ‘I Crashed The Economy’ beneath a picture of a huge lettuce? Why didn’t she just laugh it off? Then I remembered. She doesn’t have a sense of humour.
• Labour vowed to end the strikes and are giving junior doctors a 22 per cent increase over two years, train drivers 15 per cent over three and now GPs are hoping to get a deal. That’s one way to do it – reward the strikers and crash the economy.

Chanel launches a pair for £790. Flip-flops are officially declared this summer’s ‘it shoe’ and even style goddess Maya Jama swaps her stilettos for them. They’re also a podiatrist’s ‘dream’ as they fail to provide any arch support, causing foot pain, postural issues, tendonitis, bunions and hammertoes.

And to think you can get all that discomfort with a pair of £15 Havaianas.

Madonna steps out with boyfriend Akeem Morris, 38 years her junior, to celebrate her 66th birthday in Italy’s heat wearing an ankle-length dress and gloves, with a brolly hiding her face. When she’s trying to keep up with a bloke barely older than her daughter it seems – like Maggie May – she knows: ‘The morning sun when it’s in your face really shows your age.’ 

Sven’s sex own goals

Terminally ill ex England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson defends his predilection for peccadilloes, in a documentary.

‘Sex is one of the good things in life for all of us,’ he said. ‘I was stupid but I did nothing criminal.’

Former lover Faria Alam sold her story for £300,000 and fellow Swede Ulrika Jonsson is still dining out on their affair. ‘I didn’t really disturb anyone,’ Sven adds.

His fiery ex long-term partner Nancy Dell’Olio might have something to say about that.

Why are residents of the trendy enclave Walthamstow Village fighting to stop a branch of Gail’s bakery opening on their High Street, saying it will harm the character and local shops? All they have to do if it opens is not frequent it. Although I swear if they have one mouthful of a Gail’s cheese and chive scone, all the other local bakeries might as well shut up shop.

It’s Liam pain!

One Direction star Liam Payne is savaged and branded a ‘hideous misogynist’ on social media after his girlfriend Kate Cassidy shared a video on TikTok in which he tells her before a sushi date: ‘You look nice — and covered up, for once.’

Calm down Gen Z. It was a joke! Kate’s famous for her Hot Shots and makes her money as an influencer wearing hardly any clothes.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt celebrate their decades long bromance posing in bed together for GQ. They’re wearing weirdy pyjamas reminiscent of Morecambe and Wise. Crikey, the least we fans expect is the glimpse of a muscular thigh.

Or am I just objectifying them, as men have done to actresses since time immemorial?

Martina Navratilova, 67, and her wife Julia Lemigova, 52, are delighted having adopted two boys while ‘recognising the challenges and the rewards’. And to those who say the couple are too old, those boys will have a safe home and two loving mums who saved them from who knows what future.

One of the five charged over the death of Friends star Matthew Perry from a ketamine overdose wrote a text saying: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay.’ As it turned out, he paid with his life. Matthew wasn’t a moron, he was a comic genius but also a vulnerable addict who battled substance abuse and depression all his life.

Molly-Mae’s in the money

Two years ago the adorable homespun influencer Molly-Mae Hague said she and boxer fiancé Tommy Fury based their relationship on ‘loyalty’.

‘It’s just the most comforting feeling, being with the person you love and knowing they’ll only ever have eyes for you,’ she said.

Now it seems Tommy had a roving eye and has left the family home amid rumours of romping with a Danish girl and suspicions of other affairs, leaving her devastated.

The silver lining is her £6million fortune can only grow as her eight million followers wait for the next instalment — Molly-Mae, Single Mum.