Truth about Eamonn Holmes’ ‘engagement’ to new younger girlfriend: Friends tell KATIE HIND why it’s ‘weird’ and Ruth is so ‘worried’… and of the intriguing mystery that’s casting a cloud over the relationship

When paparazzi photographs emerged of Eamonn Holmes and his new girlfriend enjoying a mini break in the City of Love, even the presenter’s friends began to gossip about their relationship.

While a miserable looking Eamonn, 65, shuffled around in an electronic mobility chair – which he uses due to a crippling back problem – Katie Alexander, who is 21 years his junior, stood beside him, wearing a £1,000 Hermes scarf, a £139.99 Mango faux leather coat and a £1,600 Louis Vuitton handbag as they left the Louvre museum in Paris earlier this week.

What puzzled Eamonn’s friends was the dazzling ring on psychotherapist Katie’s wedding finger – given that the Good Morning presenter’s divorce from his ex-wife and co-host Ruth Langsford is nowhere near complete, and that his agent had insisted the pair were only in Paris to ‘visit art and museums’.

All of them, I’m told, are asking the same question: what would Katie, an attractive and intelligent 43-year-old divorcee, see in Eamonn, who – following his recent health battles – is said to be becoming increasingly cantankerous? (Since a nasty fall in 2022, Eamonn has finally given in to using a walker and mobility chair. He also underwent a double hip operation in 2015.)

Katie is said to spend a lot of time at Eamonn’s new bachelor pad, a penthouse in a modest block of flats on the Kingston one-way system in south-west London.

But friends tell me that they are ‘too polite’ to ask Holmes about the exact nature of their relationship.

All of Eamonn’s friends are asking the same question: what would Katie, an attractive and intelligent 43-year-old divorcee, see in Eamonn, who – following his recent health battles – is said to be becoming increasingly cantankerous?