Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes made a return to This Morning after a three-month absence on Monday. 

The husband-and-wife duo are hosting the ITV daytime show over the summer months as regular hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield take their annual break. 

Addressing viewers on their first episode of This Morning since April, the pair admitted it was “lovely to be back”.

Ruth and Eamonn previously held a weekly Friday slot on This Morning, as well as hosting during the school holidays. 

However, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary succeeded them as Friday presenters in January. 

While it was announced Eamonn and Ruth would continue to host during the school holidays when Alison and Dermot’s appointment was announced, the couple only covered one week of the two-week Easter break and did not return for the spring half term.

They did not comment on their absence at the time, although Eamonn has been publicly documenting his battle with chronic pain with his Instagram followers in recent months. 

Eamonn said he was looking forward to being reunited with his wife on screen as “it’s the only time we really get to see each other properly”. 

He said (via MailOnline): “We both have very busy lives so it’s actually quite an unusual thing to spend so much time together. So yes, that’s got to be a good thing!”

Ruth, who also presents ITV’s Loose Women, added: “We’ve hosted so many This Morning summers now and we always look forward to it. They are always a lot of fun the summer weeks, it has a slightly different vibe to it than the rest of the year.

“People are often tuning in on their own holidays so we look forward to hearing where people are and they send us messages about what they are doing for the summer.”

This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.