GB News bosses have launched an investigation after a young female producer was left bruised when she was hit by Eamonn Holmes’s wheelchair.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the woman has made a complaint following the alleged incident ten days ago.
It happened as she attempted to explain to the employee pushing Mr Holmes, 65, that the star could not return to the set to continue hosting his breakfast show following a toilet break, because the cameras were rolling.
Sources at GB News have told this newspaper that tensions ran high as the woman said it wasn’t the best time for Mr Holmes to return to his seat, although there is no suggestion that he did anything wrong.
One said: ‘Eamonn gets wheeled on and off the set because his mobility is so bad. He is really struggling to move around these days so, as part of the care that GB News are giving him, he will be wheeled to the loo if he needs to go during the programme.
‘Only this time there was some confusion over whether or not he could go back to his seat as the cameras were going and the show was being aired live. The poor young woman was doing her job and saying that it wasn’t possible for him to go back on.
‘There were frustrations over it from some involved and the next thing the woman gets hit and she got a bruise on her leg. It has been the talk of the studio ever since.’
GB News’s HR department is now said to be looking into the incident.
It isn’t the first time there has been drama surrounding Mr Holmes’s breakfast show.
Last month he fell off his chair while interviewing commentator Charlie Rowley live on air at 6.15am. While viewers couldn’t see him fall, a crash could be heard off-screen and co-host Ellie Costello said: ‘Oh my gosh’.
It came after he was taken to hospital in April following a fall at home.
Bosses at the channel are becoming increasingly worried about Mr Holmes’s health and about how long he is going to be able to host his breakfast show, which runs from 6am to 9.30am three days a week.
He is currently chauffeured from his Surrey home to the west London set and back again.
He struggles so much with his mobility – which has deteriorated following a double hip replacement and spinal surgery on three slipped discs in 2016 and 2022 respectively – that he is wheeled on and off the set.
Mr Holmes has been battling health issues since surgery in 2022, and it is said that he now has very little feeling in his lower back. In 2023, he said that he ‘could no longer walk or look after himself’.
He is being supported by his new girlfriend Katie Alexander, 43, following his split from wife Ruth Langsford, 65, last year.