Eamonn Holmes reveals cause of chronic pain as he returns to This Morning after days in hospital

Eamonn Holmes returned to This Morning after ‘chronic back pain’ left him hospitalised last week.

The 61-year-old presenter was back on the sofa with his wife Ruth Langsford on Monday as he was in good spirits and was able to joke about his condition.

Keeping his trademark wit and using the situation to poke fun at his partner, he quipped: ‘I’m really glad that the intense pain that I’m in during the evening, two o’clock, three o-clock in the morning, never effects you darling.

‘Never affects you once, not once do you say, “Are you OK darling? Where are you going to? Why are you getting out of bed?” Whatever – nothing disturbs you.

‘It’s a gift that you have, to be able to sleep unconcerned. Whereas I would take a little stool and sit besides you and mop your brow.’

Ruth laughed along and pointed out she does a lot to help her husband during the day, while he jokingly compared her to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest character Nurse Ratched, who was also played by Sarah Paulson last year on haunting Netflix series Ratched.

He pondered: ‘Do you think I should hire a nurse in? Like, someone’s who kind and caring? Nurse Ratched there!’

Later in the show, Eamonn revealed he had recently hurt his back but ‘didn’t really do anything’ about it.

He explained: ‘So this chronic pain business, if you’ve been following my Twitter page, a month ago, I hurt my back, I didn’t really do anything, it got worse and worse and worse, and it turned into chronic pain. And basically, from the point of view that I literally could not sleep at night – night time was the absolute worst.’

He also opened up on how ‘your back compresses’ and can result in physical changes.

He explained: ‘I used to be five foot 10 and a half… But I was measured by the doctor recently, he said “How tall are you?” I said, “five foot 10 and a half”.

‘And he said, “No you’re not, you’re five foot nine!” As you get older, your back compresses and things happen.’

Before going on air, the co-host woke up in the early hours for his physio and then jumped in an ice cold shower to help him feel ‘match fit’.

Ahead of the ITV programme’s kick off at 10am, he tweeted: ‘Hey , busy day so far ….. 1 hour physio at 4.30 am to get match fit for today’s #ThisMorning …. followed by the Cold shower routine ! All this will either kill me or cure me. So far , so good though and remember I’m going to be sharing your #ChronicPain stories & advice. (sic)’

Late last week, Eamonn revealed he’d gone to see doctors to work out what was causing ‘pain like I’ve never experienced in my life’.

However, with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield taking a break from This Morning for the Easter holidays, Eamonn and his wife Ruth were set to stand in after losing their Friday slot to Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary.

On Friday morning, he tweeted: ’Will have clearer picture of what’s causing my pain tomorrow but just to say folks like so many of you I’ve lived with variations of chronic pain for years.

‘Don’t allow it to stop me working & next week I’d like to be a voice for many of u & discuss the subject on This Morning.’ 

He added he is ‘proud that my experience has given you a voice and I’m humbled by your various and different experiences & your kindness to me’.

‘If between us we can get more solutions more understanding and more resources directed towards CP then that would be a result,’ he wrote.

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.

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