Ruth Langsford has said she is “quite excited” about turning 60, despite feeling in her younger days that it was “really old”.
The TV presenter, whose birthday is on March 17, said that “everything is going really well” in her life, so she is ready to embrace the milestone age.
She also said that she is surprised to still be working on the small screen because previously “women were farmed off when they hit 40”.
Langsford told Hello! magazine: “I can’t quite believe I have reached the big 6-0 because when you are in your 20s, you think it’s really old.
“But actually I am quite excited about it.
“I am very happy in my life, I have got a very happy marriage, a lovely family, I love my work and my career, so everything is going really well.”
Her TV career started around 30 years ago as a continuity announcer and evening news presenter for ITV regional station Television South West, before she moved into national TV.
She is now best known for being a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, a role she has had on and off since 1999, and for being This Morning’s relief host along with husband Eamonn Holmes.
Of her lengthy career, she said: “I didn’t think I would still be working in television at 60 because when I was in my 30s you didn’t see 60-year-old women in television.
“Women were farmed off when they hit 40 – but it’s very different now and that’s thanks to those who forged the way for older women; people like Gloria Hunniford and Janet Street-Porter.”
Holmes told the magazine: “Ruth has a lovely attitude to life. I just stand back in awe and look at her strength and capabilities.
“She is an amazing person – I am not half the person she is. She is my great hero and she has got more into her groove as she has got older.”
Langsford also told of her sadness at the departure of their 18-year-old son Jack leaving the family home for university.
However, she said that living with only her husband will be “a new adventure”.
She said: “I feel that we have done a really good job creating this lovely young man who we are now sending off into the world for his own adventures, which is very exciting.
“But we will both miss him hugely, I can’t imagine what it will be like not to see him every day.
“It will be just Eamonn and I. And I see that as a new adventure for us.
“I think I am very lucky that we are looking forward to spending time together where some people find that time very difficult.”
Read the full article in Hello! magazine, out now.
