Ruth Langsford has made a heartbreaking confession about her dementia fears after recently revealing her mum’s struggle with the condition. The former This Morning presenter acts as a carer to her mum, Joan, 94, who has Alzheimer's. The pair live together with Ruth’s dog Maggie following her split from her husband Eamonn Holmes, 65, in 2024. To celebrate Mother’s Day, the 65-year-old shared a heartfelt Instagram post to keep fans updated on how Joan has been lately. Sharing a video of Joan dancing in the kitchen, she admitted that Joan was currently battling a nasty health issue and wasn’t well enough to celebrate.
She wrote: "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you wonderful mums out there but especially to my amazing Mum Joan. I'm sharing an old video because, unfortunately, Mum's not well... she's got a nasty chest infection, so she's not up to celebrating today. Maggie and I are with her, though, and giving her lots of TLC. I'm sure she'll be back peeling the veg, dancing, and drinking sherry in my kitchen very soon. Hope you're all having a lovely day with your Mum if you're fortunate, like me, to have her.”
Ruth has been open about her dementia fears, revealing that she worries she might develop it as both her parents were diagnosed with the illness. Ruth’s dad Dennis passed away in 2012 at the age of 84, having first shown symptoms of Alzheimer's in the 1990s. In his final years, the former army sergeant was cared for at home by his wife Joan. Ruth revealed the painful experience of losing a parent to the disease back in 2013, calling the ordeal "horrible" and "strange."
"You’re grieving for them while they’re still alive. They are physically there but their spirit appears not to be. It’s like you’ve lost them... but there they are," she wrote, referring to her father's "long and slow" decline. Eventually, we had to put him into care. It broke my heart. But sometimes, it is not possible to keep a sufferer at home. Me and my sister had to persuade my mum to let him go into care because being at home was making them both ill," she admitted.
The TV star's mum later developed dementia, and the TV star has confessed she's refused to do a test to see her chances of developing it. Speaking to Woman and Home, she said: "I'm a bit 'head in the sand' about Alzheimer's. Both my parents have had it, I know what it entails, and it horrifies me. There's a test you can do to see if you're more likely to get it, but because there's no medication to treat it, I'd rather not know. When I have senior moments, as people call them, I panic. Then I let it go because I can't bear to think about that."
