This Morning's Eamonn Holmes Forced To Apologise For 'Ignorant' Comments On Afro Hair

Viewers were left outraged during today’s edition of This Morning, after host Eamonn Holmes compared a woman of colour’s hair to that of an ‘alpaca’.

You can watch the video below.

After discussing some of the day’s biggest health headlines with resident doctor Zoe Williams, stand-in host Eamonn – who is covering for Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby alongside wife Ruth Langsford – commented on Zoe’s afro hairstyle.

“Your hair reminds me of an alpaca today,” he said, as Zoe laughed awkwardly. “You just want to pet it, don’t you? It’s very alpaca-ish.”

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In response to Eamonn’s comments, Zoe, who was speaking over Zoom link from her home, replied: “Don’t touch my hair!” before Ruth quickly moved the segment on.

Viewers quickly flocked to Twitter to express their shock at the comments.

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"Did Eamonn just compare the doctor's hair to an alpaca?" one person wrote, adding a number of frowning emojis.

"Comparing a black woman's hair to an alpaca? Eh?" a second person added, confused.

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While a third said: "Uh Eamonn what tf was that about? Have you learnt nothing?! You never talk about petting a black woman’s hair. And saying it looks like an alpaca?!"

Eamonn has since apologised for his poor choice of words.

Taking to Twitter, he explained: "Hey everyone out there. If my attempt at being humorous with my friend Zoe was misjudged, I am mortified and humbly apologise to anyone who was offended."

Eamonn's comments come after he and Zoe discussed Geronimo the Alpaca on the ITV magazine programme.

For those of you not in the loop, Geronimo is an eight year old alpaca who has been ordered to be culled after he tested positive for bovine tuberculosis four years ago.



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His owner, Helen Macdonald, has claimed that the test was flawed and is asking for another test in order to give him another shot at life.

Having gathered tens of thousands of supporters and worldwide interest, Helen is now campaigning to keep Geronimo alive.

"I feel the government is being cruel to Geronimo and to me," she told The Guardian. "I would expect the prime minister to step in."

Tyla has contacted ITV for comment.

Topics: TV And Film, This Morning, ITV

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley