Eamonn Holmes reveals Jilly Cooper based one of her characters on him

Eamonn Holmes has claimed that he was the inspiration for a character in one of Jilly Cooper’s novels, as he paid tribute to the author following her death on Sunday.

The writer, who was branded ‘Queen of the bonkbuster’ thanks to her raunchy series of books, died after a fall at her home in The Cotswolds, with her family saying they were ‘shocked’ by her sudden passing.

Speaking on his GB News Breakfast Show, Eamonn told his co-host Ellie Costello that he met Jilly at a theatre, where she hinted that there was a character in one of her books based on him.

Joking the character must be a ‘devilishly handsome’ man, he admitted he may start reading Jilly’s novels to find his book alter-ego.

He said: ‘She actually got me along to a theatre where she was studying something one day, and she said ”I’ve based my new hero on you”, now this hero is either called Eamonn or he was a TV presenter. So I feature in it in some way.’

‘Maybe I say ”get up to dirty things.”

Ellie then added: ‘I think there is a bit of that! I think you should get reading and find out what you’ve been up to in her books, you don’t know! She could have written anything!’

Eamonn then quipped: ‘Is there somebody called Eamonn in one of her books, or a TV anchor, he’d be devilishly handsome. Impossibly handsome.’

On Monday, Daily Mail revealed that Dame Jilly suffered a fall at her Grade II-listed home in The Cotswolds before being rushed to hospital where she died.

The novelist was taken to Gloucester Royal Hospital after a 999 call was made to the ambulance service on late Saturday afternoon.

Dame Jilly’s children Felix and Emily said her death on Sunday morning, announced on Monday, had come as a ‘complete shock’ as they called her the ‘shining light’ of their lives. 

The ‘Queen of the bonkbuster’ author, famed for her raunchy romance novels, sold more than 12million books in her career. 

She had been living in her historic home, The Chantry, in the pretty Gloucestershire village of Bisley, for over four decades, from where she produced her raunchy novels. 

Paramedics from the South Western Ambulance Service raced to Dame Jilly’s home following the emergency call at about 5.34pm.   

Queen Camilla, whose first husband Andrew Parker Bowles was said to have been the inspiration for Dame Jilly’s invented lothario Rupert Campbell-Black, hailed the author as a ‘legend’ and a ‘wonderfully witty and compassionate friend’. 

Her agent Felicity Blunt issued a similarly warm tribute, saying the author was ‘sharply observant and utter fun’. 

Dame Jilly, who admitted in her final interview with the Daily Mail earlier this year to having enjoyed a clinch with James Bond star Sean Connery, was best known for her books in The Rutshire Chronicles series. 

The depiction of the bedroom antics of the polo-playing classes proved a huge hit with millions seeking naughty bed-time reading. 

The novelist lost her husband Leo, who she she forgave when he had a ‘cataclysmic’ six-year affair in the 1990s, to Parkinson’s disease in 2013. 

The author refused to send him into a care home even when his condition worsened.

Dame Jilly confessed that she only continued to write novels in her later life to pay for her husband’s medical bills. 

In 1990, publisher’s secretary Sarah Johnson revealed her affair with Leo and said her disclosure was prompted by Dame Jilly’s boasts about her perfect marriage. 

The author’s first book, How to Stay Married, had advised readers in 1969: ‘If you discover he is having an affair with someone and he doesn’t know, play it cool. But if he knows you know, raise hell.’

Explaining how her relationship with her husband survived his infidelity, Dame Jilly told the Daily Mail in 2019: ‘At our ruby wedding anniversary, I compared marriage to two people rowing across a vast ocean in a tiny boat, sometimes revelling in blue skies and lovely sunsets, sometimes rocked by storms so violent we’d nearly capsized, but somehow we’d battled on.’

Dame Jilly’s family said in their statement: ‘Mum was the shining light in all of our lives.

‘Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds. Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.

‘We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.’

Dame Jilly’s first novel in the Rutshire series, Riders, was published in 1985, when the author was 48. 

The second book in the series, Rivals, was recently adapted for television by Disney+. 

In a signal of how she remained very active in her later years, Dame Jilly held a party for the cast at her home in Gloucestershire in August. 

Also among the attendees was the ‘famously naughty’ Andrew Parker Bowles, who remains close to his ex-wife the Queen. 

Dame Jilly and Queen Camilla enjoyed a catch-up in March this year when the author attended the launch of the Queen’s Reading Room medal at Clarence House.

Camilla told her: ‘I’m so proud of you. For all you’ve done.’ 

The Queen said in her tribute today: ‘I was so saddened to learn of Dame Jilly’s death last night.

‘Very few writers get to be a legend in their own lifetime but Jilly was one, creating a whole new genre of literature and making it her own through a career that spanned over five decades.

‘In person she was a wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many – and it was a particular pleasure to see her just a few weeks ago at my Queen’s Reading Room Festival where she was, as ever, a star of the show.

‘I join my husband The King in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family.

‘And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs.’