Eamonn Holmes returned to the airwaves on Monday, taking charge of his talkRADIO drive time slot after more than a week of illness.
The Northern Irish presenter, 58, was forced to call in sick just three days after landing his radio show, thanks to a nasty virus that caused him to lose his voice.
On today’s show, the star joked it was an “embarrassing” situation given the sheer timing of it all.
He told listeners: “I’ve been waylaid for a week and I’m never off. But you get a new radio show and then you lose your voice all in the same week so it’s a bit useless! Very embarrassing.
“Will my voice hold up for three hours? I hope it does!”
Read more: Kelly Brook reveals fears she’s left it too late to have kids
“I’m absolutely delighted to be back with you again today after a week off sick, but you know it could have been worse,” he said.
“Honestly, I take very few days off work. Self-employment is the best medicine you can get, I usually find. The lovely folk at talkRadio say, ‘Eamonn, would you like this show?’… then after three days I just can’t talk. I lose my voice, which is a pretty bad situation.
“So I apologise to you if you were expecting me last week, but thanks to Richard Madeley and James Whale who stepped in for me. And hopefully you guys are still out there persevering.”
Eamonn kicked off his Monday show with a phone-in about colds, coughs and flus, aiming to examine the difference between them and the home remedies people use.
He said of his illness: “I don’t think I had the flu. Was I incapacitated? Very much so. A very sore throat. Tonsillitis. Just rotten mucus… I don’t need to go into too many details, but you probably know exactly what it’s like!
“I just felt miserable. So, what worked for me? I think just time worked for me.”
Glad to have you back, Eamonn!
Listeners were thrilled to have him back on air, with one tweeting: “Have missed this man’s dulcet tone last week. Hope you are feeling better Eamonn.”
He returned to This Morning on Friday last week, after being forced to skip the previous Friday episode, leaving wife Ruth Langsford to co-host solo before Alison Hammond joined her.
However, being off sick for a week wasn’t an entirely wasted experience, as Eamonn revealed on the show he’d managed to “save a fortune” by going through his direct debits!
Eamonn said he had remembered money expert Martin Lewis previously advising This Morning viewers to regularly check their direct debits to see whether they were paying out for things they no longer used.
And in Eamonn and Ruth’s case, that was correct!
“When I was off sick and had nothing to do I [went through all our direct debits],” said Eamonn.
“You would be amazed at the things I was still paying for like a Dixons cover plan – Dixons went down the tube about five years ago! Orange telecommunications. They don’t even exist anymore – they became EE – and I’ve been paying out.”
Read more: Bradley Walsh stuns fans with picture of his mum celebrating 80th birthday
He continued: “Also newspaper subscriptions that come to your iPad and you don’t even read.
“Martin has saved us a fortune!”