Eamonn Holmes: I have to reinvent myself to stay relevant

Eamonn Holmes has admitted he feels a need to reinvent himself to stay relevant to audiences.

The 60-year-old broadcaster – who co-presents ITV daytime show This Morning with his wife Ruth Langsford – was recently replaced as the host of talkRADIO’s drivetime show.

Holmes told the Events That Made Me podcast: "As good as you do, staying in employment, people like me have got to stay relevant. To stay relevant, you have to know your market... You’ve got to see the trends coming and you have to reinvent yourself."

Read more: Eamonn Holmes 'clarifies' comments over 5G after hundreds of complaints

He added: “What I would say about my job is that getting on the conveyor belt is very, very tough, very hard, but staying on the conveyor belt is harder."

Holmes, who received an OBE in 2018, rose to fame hosting breakfast show GMTV in the early 90s before moving to anchor Sky News’ Sunrise show from 2005 to 2016.

He revealed he had held strong ambitions to become a TV presenter since he was a student.

Read more: Eamonn Holmes hit with huge tax bill after losing court case

Holmes recalled: "My journalism lecturer would go round the class and say, right, ‘What do you want to do when you qualify?’ and people in my journalism class would say, ‘I want to write for the Irish Times’, ‘I want to write for The Guardian’ or I want to write for the Independent’, and when it got to me I would say, ‘I want to be on TV, I want to be a TV reporter.’

"And the class would laugh. I suppose their point was you shouldn’t really express ambition like that, but to me it was direction, it was the area of journalism I wanted to be in.”

The presenter – who had a double hip replacement in 2016 and found he had lost 30% of his hearing by the time he was 50 – has recently admitted he feels his life is nearing its end.

He told The Journey podcast: “My father was dead at 64. He died of a heart attack.

“That gives me four years. Ruth says, ‘Don’t talk like that,’ but you do think like that.

“There’s projects that I crave and I’ve got interests in lots of things."