Ruth Langsford opens up on ‘death rattle’ health battle and hospital dash as she returns to Loose Women
RUTH Langsford opened up on her recent health issues as she returned to work at Loose Women.
The ITV star was joined by Coleen Nolan, Dame Kelly Holmes and Janet Street-Porter on Monday’s edition of the daytime panel show.
However, Ruth, 63, gave her co-stars and the audience present an update as she was forced to take a leave of absence of the programme.
The presenter first gave her introduction to the programme as she let viewers know what was coming up.
However, Coleen, 58, turned to her Loose Women co-star as she exclaimed: “Where the hell have you been?”
To which Ruth replied: “I’ve been poorly on sick leave! It’s very nice to be back in the real world.”
The presenter was forced to miss the National Television Awards as co-stars represented the show at the glitzy event.
After Coleen joked that she’d missed Ruth, even though she herself was barely in the studio last week, the anchor went onto explain what was wrong.
“I had a chest infection, was on antibiotics, [it was] awful, wiped out.
Cutting to her husband Eamonn Holmes’ video of her with her vaporiser, she continued: “I know Susanna Reid is off today, she’s lost her voice.
“There’s me inhaling, that was Eamonn and I was like ‘would you go away!’
Dame Kelly Holmes, 52, then mentioned how a new Covid variant is doing the rounds, but Ruth suggested her illness was more serious.
“I did three Covid tests, all negative. I just thought ‘Oh I got a bit of a cold,’ I was doing the Lemsip and the honey and lemon and all that stuff you do.
“And I was kind of lying on the bed feeling sorry for myself and I was like, ‘What’s that noise? Where is that funny noise?’
“Then I realised it was my chest, it was literally like a death rattle, and then I was like ‘I need to go to the doctor’.
After a course of antibiotics, Ruth says she is feeling better, but she hasn’t made quite the full recovery as the illness is hard to shift.
She added: “I feel absolutely fine but I’ve still got this croaky kind of thing in my chest”
“A friend of mine has had it for four weeks, I’m feeling fine and back at work and everything, but this cough won’t [go away].”
And Coleen soon made light of the situation by saying there’s a lot of “chest heal” as she pointed towards her own assets.
The former singer even declared that she would be “off for six months,” if she caught a cough similar to her co-star.