Eamonn Holmes is a familiar face to many as he graces our TV screens almost daily, but to the people of North Belfast, he's just 'our Eamonn'.
The broadcaster was back in the community where he was born on Monday, and although the streets and buildings may have changed over the years, the This Morning host walked the streets and chatted to locals like he'd never been away.
"I was born and bred here, the first eight years of my life were spent here in North Belfast. There have been great changes since I lived here, but again this is a thoroughfare for me in Belfast.
"We were up and down the Lodge Road, back and forward to my mothers and the rest of my family in North Belfast where all my family live so this is all very familiar territory for me," he said.
Walking through a wet and windy New Lodge, Eamonn, happily stopped and chatted to just about everyone, from district nurses who he thanked for everything they do, to chippie workers and taxi drivers who just wanted to chat about the football.
The 57-year-old was visiting BBC Children in Need funded projects in the city, and came along to New Lodge Arts to learn how their funding makes a positive difference to the lives of children and young people in the North Belfast area ahead of the 2017 Appeal in November.
He told Belfast Live: "I think anyone who donates money wonders what's happening to it and for me in particular to see a community that I was once part of, and listening to the radical ways in which they spend this money and how they empower these young people and how they have this aspirations for them, how the parents have aspirations for them, they have dreams and they have goals and I'm just very, very enthused by what these guys do."
Eamonn chatted to young people and staff from New Lodge Arts and encouraged them to reach for the stars.
He continued: "Life is often what you make it, but it's really good when someone is there to give you a helping hand or steer you in the right direction.
"I think for a lot of people maybe it doesn't start off in the direction you want it to, or the cards are stacked against you, and I just think if I, in any way, or people like me, who have come from this community, people like Rachel Tucker, people like the superb actor Ciaran Hynes, all on the New Lodge Road here, any many many more, then it's just nice to say to say dream, dream big and you can do it."
Despite having his main residence in England, Eamonn is adamant Belfast will always be home.
He explained: "The thing that irritates me most is when people say, 'oh are you back home to the province for a visit', or whatever it is and I just think these things show wherever you go, you never go away from Belfast, Belfast comes with you, and it comes back with you again.
"This is the essence of who I am, no matter where I am, no matter who I'm interviewing, or what I'm doing, you can take the man out of North Belfast, but you can't take North Belfast out of the man
He added: "I'm very associated with Belfast and I think when you understand these people and they understand you then that's a great thing, I'm up and down here all the time, but sometimes you come back and people say, 'oh are you back for a holiday?', but I'm back here all the time, I have a house here, I used to be back every week, now I'm back every two sometimes three weeks, but I'm here all the time.
"I think sometimes people think because you're on TV you live on another planet."
