Eamonn Holmes shares sadness over 'ruining' son's wedding with 'awful timing'

Eamonn Holmes has shared his sadness over "ruining" his son Declan's wedding as he opened up on his gruelling health struggles on Loose Women.

The This Morning host joined Loose Women Jane Moore, Kaye Adams, Katie Piper and Gloria Hunniford live on the ITV daytime chat show to discuss his battle with shingles in 2018, in order to raise awareness of the disease.

Shingles is a condition that causes red, blotchy patches and painful blisters to appear on the skin and its caused by the varicella-zoster virus - the same virus that causes chicken pox.

Eamonn contracted the illness three years ago and shared a photo of what his face looked like at the time on Instagram this week.

In the upload, the Northern Irish presenter's face can be seen swollen and covered in red sores.

Chatting to the Loose ladies about how the bout of shingles came at the worst possible time, Eamonn explained that he "ruined" his son's wedding day.

Explaining the story behind the photo on his Instagram, Eamonn, who is married to Loose Women star Ruth Langsford, said, "That was at a time when my eldest son – my only son to get married. It was the first marriage in the family and that was what I looked like on the wedding day and I had to have that covered up.

"So you can imagine, I ruined all the pictures, I didn't want to be in them. I didn’t want to be the centre of attention with all this. The timing was awful," he added.

Going on to highlight the potential severity of a Shingles infection, Eamonn continued, "The dangerous thing about mine was that if it's on your face, it can affect, maybe impair your eyesight."

More recently, Eamonn has been in awful pain and having to walk with a cane due to a nasty back injury.

"The thing I'm struggling with at the moment is a dead right leg. I've had two dislocated discs for the past five months. I'm having all sorts of treatment and working through it with all sorts of things like dietary and hydrotherapy," he told Kaye, Jane, Gloria and Katie.

"We don't really appreciate our health until it goes."

Eamonn also opened up on the joy of having become a grandfather earlier this year, revealing the sweet name he goes by now he has a granddaughter.

Back in July Eamonn confirmed that his eldest son, Declan, had welcomed his first daughter, Emilia, into the world.

Sharing a gorgeous photo of Declan cradling his newborn, proud father Eamonn wrote, "My First born Son Declan with his first born and my first Grandchild Emilia. Welcome to The World Emilia. Just call me Papa."

Making sure that his new nickname is clear, Eamonn told the Loose Women, "I'm not a granddaddy, I'm known as Papa. They call me Papa now. I just found it lovely, when I met the child she immediately cried in my arms.

"I handed her to my son and I was so proud of him, Declan. The baby just looked at him, she knew his smell, she knew his voice. It was just lovely to see the bond," he recalled.

Recounting the special advice he gave Declan, Eamonn continued, "I said to him 'Son, some parents don't ever have that. It's a lovely bond, keep it for life and tell her you love her'."