A heartbroken Ruth Langsford has candidly opened up about the death of her sister Julia.
The presenter’s beloved sister died by suicide in June 2019 aged 62 after a long battle with depression. Julia was found dead by her husband Paul at their home in Lingfield, Surrey.
And now Ruth, who rarely speaks about her sister, has revealed what the devastating tragedy taught her about her loss and grief.
Ruth Langsford on sister’s death
Speaking to MailOnline ahead of the release of her memoir Feeling Fabulous, Ruth spoke about her sister Julia’s death. An emotional Ruth revealed to the publication the gift Julia gave her for being her bridesmaid back in 2010: a silver Tiffany bracelet that she never takes off.
“It’s the just not seeing her. When you think of that person and know you’ll never see them again and you never know why, you’re just left with this loss,” Ruth said, while crying.
The Loose Women star went on to share a heartbreaking realisation following Julia’s death.
Revealing she wishes she would have listened to Julia instead of offering solutions to help her, Ruth said: “I was doing it from a place of unconditional and bottomless love.
“But I realise now that in trying to help I was just putting pressure on her.”
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Ruth’s sister died by suicide
In December 2019, an inquest into Julia’s death heard that Julia died by suicide by handing. Metro reports that landscape gardener Julia was found in the garage of her home in Surrey, where she lived with her husband Paul.
The inquest also heard that she had suffered with depression for years. But on her last visit to a psychiatrist, it was decided that her condition has improved and had ssettled’. Her appointments were dropped to one every six months.
Julia’s husband Paul had discovered Julia’s body after he became concerned about his wife while on a visit to their daughter Katie.
Paul had attempted to contact Julia multiple times before he arrived before midnight on June 15. Assistant coroner for Surrey Anna Crawford said: “He found his wife hanging in the garage.”
‘The hardest year of my life’
Meanwhile in 2023, Ruth revealed the year her sister died was the “hardest year of my life”.
Speaking to Kaye Adams on her How to be 60 podcast, Ruth said: “The hardest year of my life was when my sister died. I can’t even tell you what year it is, because I’ve blocked it from my memory really..”
She also said: “I needed a focus, which was get up and I would cry in the shower – have a big old bawl. And then I could almost cut it off and go: ‘right, come on. Time for work, dry your hair, go to work’.
“I needed that, because I could lie and cry all day about my sister. I needed that focus and structure back in my life.”
Read more: Ruth Langsford in ‘new relationship’ admission following Eamonn Holmes split
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