Eamonn Holmes unable to attend mother Josie’s funeral in Belfast due to ‘health reasons’

Eamonn Holmes was reportedly unable to attend his late mother Josie’s funeral due to “health reasons”.

The 62-year-old announced on Friday that his beloved mum had passed away at the age of 93 and he is said to have appeared via videolink during her funeral service at St Patrick’s Church in Belfast on Tuesday (November 21).

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the broadcaster paid a loving tribute to the family’s matriarch virtually and described her as “the best”.

In his heartfelt message, Holmes reportedly shared: “She was the best, we could not have had a better mummy, and daddy could not have had a better wife.

“He adored you, and you him, your pain for the 31 years since he left us has been tough. He called you, ‘My queen, my queen, my Josephine’ - and you certainly ruled the roost.”

The GB News anchor is said to have also revealed that his mother had given him her “blessing and understanding” for not attending the funeral in person while sharing a humorous anecdote.

He recalled: “A few weeks ago, she said to me she didn’t want me at her funeral anyway.

“That is what she said… ‘Because you would just turn out to be the fella in the big picture — it would all be about you’.”

On Friday, the TV presenter paid tribute to his mother on social media, saying he will “miss her so much” after announcing her death.

The veteran news presenter shared a picture of his “beautiful” mother Josie on Instagram, who was standing in a doorway joyfully waving to the camera.

In the post to his more than 750,000 followers, Holmes captioned it: “My 4 amazing brothers and I said Goodbye for the last time to our beautiful Mum Josie this afternoon. She’s at last reunited with Daddy now.

“That is our only consolation. We loved and will miss her so much. Every time I visited her she came to the door to bless me with Holy Water and Wave goodbye. Now sadly it really is Goodbye Mummy.”

The Irish star’s dad Leonard died following a heart attack more than 30 years ago.

Earlier this month, the former This Morning star was left with a fractured shoulder following a fall down the stairs of his Surrey home as he recovered from spinal surgery.

Holmes’s representative told the Express at the time that Holmes was in an “awful lot of pain” following his fall and “gutted” by another health setback.

They said: “As a consequence of being laid low by major surgery, Eamonn suffered a fall at home a couple of weeks ago and had to undergo another operation.

“He’s naturally gutted by the setback, but the good news is the surgery on his shoulder went well. He’s now receiving fantastic care and rest.”

In September, we reported how Holmes underwent surgery on his back after suffering from chronic pain for the past 18 months.