EAMONN Holmes’ new girlfriend Katie Alexander has a son with a retired coach driver 40 years her senior.
The 42-year-old met Michael Devine when she was just 19 and working as a shop assistant.
Their relationship, despite the significant age gap, lasted five years and resulted in the birth of their only child, 22.
Michael, now 81, fondly recalls their time together and has expressed his happiness for Katie’s new romance with the broadcaster.
He emphasised that there are no hard feelings between himself and Katie, and he wishes her well in her new chapter.
The West Yorkshire-native attributes the end of their relationship to the demands of his job as a coach driver, which required long periods away from home.
Michael told MailOnline: “We’ve been split up for a lot of years now, but I see my son regularly, maybe once a week.
“I do see Katie now and again, but she is down in London.
“There are no hard feelings whatsoever towards Katie, she’s a nice woman, she really is. I wish her well. Absolutely brilliant, is Katie.”
Eamonn, 64, whose break-up with Ruth Langsford, also 64, was revealed by The Sun in May, sparked wedding rumours after his new woman was seen sporting the dazzling band this week.
The wrap-around gold and silver ring dazzled in the bright sunshine and was matched only by the marriage counsellor’s blinding smile.
However, Katie has denied it was an engagemeng ring and insists they’re not engaged.
A source said at the time: “Katie looked radiant and like the cat that got the cream.”
She leaves her home in Huddersfield to drive to Eamonn’s luxury pad in Kingston, South West London, virtually every weekend.
And it was no different as she made the 4.5-hour trek last Thursday to snuggle up the presenter in the bolthole on a luxury private estate near leafy Richmond Park.
The Sun told how Katie has lifted the ailing TV star’s spirits at his £2m bachelor pad.
And she has excitedly shared with friends that she and Eamonn are “planning a future together”.
However, fans hoping for a showbiz wedding look set to be disappointed as a source close to Katie admitted the ring was in fact a piece of costume jewellery.
TV favourite Eamonn moved out of his and Ruth’s marital home after his devastated wife discovered messages between him and another mystery woman.
Katie has excitedly disclosed their previous ‘close friendship’ has “gone up several notches”, sources said.
We previously revealed how Eamonn had become intimate with the counsellor specialising in ‘affair and betrayals’ months before his marriage split.
In the last year, he grew close with Katie behind the back of his devastated wife and co-presenter legend Ruth.
Eamonn, beset by mobility issues, has showered Katie with gifts and trips and befriended her kids as their close relationship developed further.
The breakfast host treated Katie and her family to a Woburn Safari Park trip in Bedford in February – even sharing snaps on social media of their outing.
Eamonn did not publicly reveal that he was on a day trip with his new companion.
Katie’s head was just visible in the back of a jeep which he posed in front of – with unsuspecting fans having no idea of the blossoming romance behind Ruth’s back.
Eamonn has splashed the cash to keep Katie sweet as his marriage crumbled.
He treated her and her two youngest kids to a stay at Center Parks last year.
Eamonn also spoiled Katie and her daughter with tickets to a Beyonce gig last year as he cemented his closeness to the £45-an-hour therapist.
Die-hard Manchester United fan Eamonn gave Katie and her kids his tickets to a Prem game at Old Trafford last season.
Before the shock split announcement, Ruth and Eamonn seemed like one of the strongest couples on UK TV – even with their signature bickering style.
Here’s how their romance played out…
1997 – The couple first meet after being introduced by mutual friends, two years after Eamonn splits from his first wife, Gabrielle, with whom he has three children.
1997-2002 – To be respectful to Gabrielle, the couple kept their relationship out of the limelight. Ruth told Daily Mail: “I thought it spoke volumes about the sort of man he was, the sort of father he was and the integrity he had. It made me love him more, not less.”
2002 – Ruth and Eamonn welcome their son, Jack, to the family.
2005 – Eamonn finalises his divorce with Gabrielle.
2006 – The pair begin to host Friday episodes of This Morning together.
2010 – Eamonn proposes to Ruth while at the Cheltenham Races, after asking Ruth’s mother for her hand.
June 2010 – Eamonn and Ruth marry at Elvetham Hall, Hampshire.
2016 – Eamonn undergoes a double hip replacement in the first of many health battles.
June 2019 – On This Morning, Ruth and Eamonn say the secret to their happy marriage. Eamonn credits “compromise, consideration and lots of conjugal,” while Ruth said it was “laughter and an equal marriage”.
November 2020 – Ruth and Eamonn are replaced on their regular Friday slot by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary in a ‘show shake-up’.
December 2021 – After a year of being moved to the bank holiday presenting slot, both Eamonn and Ruth left This Morning.
January 2022 – Eamonn debuted on GB News, while Ruth stayed with ITV in her long-standing role on Loose Women.
September 2022 – Eamonn undergoes spinal surgery after years of back issues including a trapped sciatic nerve.
November 2022 – Eamonn falls down the stairs of his Surrey home with Ruth and breaks his shoulder, requiring a new operation.
September 2023 – Eamonn has a spine and neck stretching procedure as part of his year-long recovery.
May 2024 – Ruth and Eamonn announce they have split after 14 years of marriage and a 27-year relationship.
And in a further hammer blow to his now estranged wife Ruth, on multiple occasions Katie left her northern home to stay at the four-star Brooklands Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey – just a 10 minutes’ drive from Eamonn’s marital home.
Katie was spotted at the sprawling spa destination – next to Mercedes Benz World and a motor racing track – in March and was described as a “frequent visitor”.
The counsellor told her pals she had enjoyed a ‘wonderful weekend’.
Katie has also been seen on multiple trips to Belfast in Eamonn’s beloved Northern Ireland.
Also last October, the TV star attended a small fundraising event in Yorkshire mental health counselling charity Platform 1 – agreeing to become a patron. It was just minutes from Katie’s home.
The charity – a nine-hour round trip from Eamonn’s home – is where his new therapist confidant worked for up to two years.
Eamonn beamed in a snap with staff afterwards at her local restaurant, Arthur’s.
He happily posted the picture online, but again fans had no idea of the poignancy behind the image.
Divorcee mother of three Katie met Eamonn via Twitter after she commented on a post and it sparked a conversation in 2015.
Pals say that Katie’s counselling specialities – including ‘affairs and betrayals’, ‘feeling sad’, and ‘separation and divorce’ – are a “bitter irony and a kick in the teeth for Ruth”.
We exclusively told how Eamonn and Ruth split and are to divorce, with the couple sharing a statement with us which shocked the showbiz world.
And we revealed Eamonn had already moved out of the couple’s home – after Ruth discovered messages on a laptop.
Cracks had started to appear in the popular duo’s relationship and they had not been photographed out together for two years.
But Ruth had stuck around to help Eamonn during his medical crisis.
The anchor has had a double hip replacement in 2016.
He had back surgery last year but it left him using a wheelchair.
And in January he broke his shoulder in a fall.
Ruth confided to her closest friends that there was “no way back” for the marriage.
She and twice married Eamonn first met in 1997 and in 2002 she gave birth to their son, Jack.
They won millions of fans presenting ITV’s This Morning together between 2006 and 2021.
He has lately been starring on the breakfast show on GB News.
Eamonn has three children from his first marriage.
