An emotional Eamonn Holmes fought back tears as he explained to This Morning viewers that his wife Ruth Langsford was taking some time off following the death of her sister.
The husband and wife team usually present the morning magazine show on Fridays, but today Rylan Clark-Neal stood in for Ruth.
At the start of the show, a visibly upset Eamonn told viewers: "You may already be aware of the terrible bereavement that Ruth had yesterday on her social media.
"She made this post to inform everyone..."
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As Eamonn began reading the post, his voice-cracked and he was unable to finish, prompting Clark-Neal to step in.
Holmes said: "No-one understands more than our friend and our colleague Rylan, who has been a great comfort to Ruth and a great help by stepping in today for her."
Clark-Neal said: "We know Ruth's watching, and we're sending you all our love, we love you dearly. And Ruth's going to need time to deal with this, and so are you, for that matter.
"But I couldn't not be here today."
Holmes added: "Rylan was the first person we phoned when we heard this news, and you are a great support to Ruth in all of this."
ITV have confirmed that Langsford will take a step back from presenting duties as a regular host on This Morning and on lunchtime programme Loose Women.
