Ruth Langsford joins Strictly Come Dancing 2017

Ruth Langsford is the third celebrity confirmed for Strictly Come Dancing 2017.

The news was revealed on today’s (9th August) This Morning.

“I have dreamt about doing Strictly for so long, I can’t quite believe my dream has come true!” – Ruth Langsford

Ruth is a host on ITV’s long-running daytime shows Loose Women and This Morning – the latter she presents on Fridays and during the summer holidays with her husband Eamonn Holmes. The couple also have their own Channel 5 factual-entertainment series, How the Other Half Lives, in which they travel to various destinations to meet the rich.

Ruth has a keen eye for fashion and has recently started hosting her own show Ruth Langsford’s Fashion Edit on QVC. She is an Ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and lives in London with Eamonn, their son Jack and beloved dog, Maggie. Ruth began her television career with former regional ITV station Television South West, as a continuity announcer, which also included reading in-vision birthday greetings to young viewers with co-star Gus Honeybun the station’s rabbit mascot.

TSW went off the air on New Years’ eve 1992 with Ruth and co-presenter the late Ian Sterling bidding viewers goodbye, but the end of the regional station was the start of a networked career for Langsford, hosting programmes such as the defunct TV Travel Shop which gave viewers the infamous live-blooper “nice pussy“.

Other shows include working briefly for TSW’s replacement, Westcountry Television, with local programmes such as Ruth Meets The Entertainers in 1994, 1999’s Langsford Late and The West at Work in 1993 as well as the Lorraine Kelly segment of GMTV in 2010 for a week and Gardens of the Millennium for the History channel in 1999.

Ruth first appeared on Loose Women in 1999 and This Morning the following year.

“The sum of my dance experience is throwing a few shapes at a party, I’ve never had a dance lesson in my life. Without doubt it will be the scariest yet most exciting thing I’ve ever done. It’ll be a welcome change worrying about my next hot move instead of my next hot flush!” – Ruth Langsford

Davood Ghadami and Mollie King were previously confirmed for the new series with more names to be announced soon.