- Read the unique interview with Fern Britton wherein she discusses Phillip Schofield and male energy video games
Fern Britton seems to be joyful. ‘I’m rebuilt and I’m doing okay,’ says the much-loved tv presenter, who admits she struggled after dropping each her mom and father and separating from her husband, the TV chef Phil Vickery, within the house of two years, simply earlier than Covid struck.
‘I was not suicidal, but life had knocked me for six. I was lost, then I found a bit of purpose again and it’s been beautiful.’
Fern has made a brand new begin within the Cornish seaside village that has change into her house.
Now 66, she’s had life-changing surgical procedure on a nasty shoulder harm that was dragging her down, has taken up working, misplaced a number of weight and is having fun with the one life together with her associates.
‘Being in your 60s is somehow very relaxing. You’re not within the hubbub of life any extra, though you will be if you wish to be.’
Fern Britton tells how she struggled after dropping each her mom and father, and separating from husband Phil Vickery, within the house of two years
That all sounds splendid, however now Fern is risking her newfound interior peace to do one thing very daring certainly.
As we’ve seen, on Monday she swapped Cornwall for a locked home stuffed with strangers with cameras watching them 24 hours a day, as she entered ITV actuality present Celebrity Big Brother.
‘I know it could be difficult but I think it’s going to be enjoyable,’ Fern says as we chat earlier than the present begins. ‘To be inside the Big Brother house is iconic and interesting. The whole idea caught me unawares, but I thought, “Yeah, why not?”’
We’re speaking at a bar in west London, to which Fern has turned up bright-eyed and breezy in white trainers, black slacks and a cream cotton shirt. She understands the perils of Big Brother, though actuality producers are much less more likely to push contestants to extremes lately.
‘ITV were very careful to say it’s going out at 9 o’clock at night time, 14-year-olds shall be watching. I assume there shall be no probability for me to have reside intercourse,’ she says, deadpan. ‘It’s very disappointing.’
The line is all of the funnier coming from Fern, who has for many years been the sunny one on British TV – the nice and cozy, dependable presenter of This Morning and lots of different common daytime reveals. She was on the peak of her fame when the primary Big Brother couple received cosy on air, again in 2004.
But her children clearly know simply how salty Fern will be in actual life, as a result of she provides, ‘One of the daughters simply stated, “Mother, please don’t use the C-word on air. And please don’t show your [whistling and glancing down towards her nether regions] anywhere.” That’s excellent recommendation!’
Fern has three kids from her first marriage to TV govt Clive Jones: twins Harry and Jack, 29, and Grace, 26, and a 22-year-old daughter referred to as Winnie from her 20-year marriage to Phil Vickery. The children have been the one ones she may inform about occurring Big Brother, which as regular was shrouded in secrecy.
Fern and Phillip Schofield (pictured collectively in 2004) introduced This Morning collectively till 2009 – however the pair have not spoken in 15 years
‘The papers you get at the start are a mental health check. “Can you deal with people not liking you, with people booing you, with bad headlines that you’ll do not know about till you come out?”’ she says. ‘You’ve received to be fairly strong.’
Celebrity careers can take a knock within the Big Brother home. Jade Goody was caught bullying the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in racist phrases that sparked a diplomatic disaster, whereas politician George Galloway misplaced all credibility on the time by pretending to be a cat lapping milk from Rula Lenska’s cupped fingers. Is Fern assured in her capacity to not do one thing silly?
‘Not necessarily,’ she says. ‘I will try very hard not to have a meltdown. It would have to be over something pretty ghastly. Essentially it is an entertainment programme and we are there to have fun.’
What in the event that they ask her tough questions – for instance, about her relationship with the disgraced TV presenter Phillip Schofield, who stepped down from This Morning final yr and admitted mendacity to the crew about an affair with a a lot youthful male colleague? ‘They probably will ask me,’ says Fern, who labored alongside Phillip for seven years as the primary hosts of the present till 2009. ‘I will truthfully say I have nothing to tell them about This Morning over the last few years, because I haven’t been there.’
She walked out on the display screen partnership with Phillip midway by a profitable contract. Was that her alternative? ‘To leave This Morning? Ultimately, yes. I loved it and I would probably still be there if…’ Fern pauses, then says, ‘Phillip and I were not getting on very well at that stage.’
They have been broadly thought to detest one another, and there’s a clue to why when she talks concerning the energy video games that have been performed by male presenters in these days. ‘Lots of the men you work with are much more fussed about their piece to camera and how many words they’ve received than they’re about you.’
Have she and Phillip had any contact since she left This Morning 15 years in the past? ‘I haven’t spoken to him, no.’
Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley are the brand new presenters at This Morning. ‘Ben has real emotional intelligence, Cat’s received heat,’ Fern says. ‘If they can trust each other, the audience will trust them.’
Fern tells how she’s slimmed down and had life-changing surgical procedure after being in a number of bodily ache
Fern appeared on Strictly Come Dancing after she left This Morning and has made programmes together with journey present My Cornwall With Fern Britton, however in any other case her time has been spent writing bestselling novels set primarily in her adopted county, with a brand new one on the way in which.
‘The headline is, “A woman who has lost everything is left a house that is falling down. Can they save each other?” I was telling a friend this the other day and she said, “That’s your life.” I went, “Oh yeah!”’
The story of how she ended up relocating to the coast is shifting. ‘We bought the house 18 years ago. I knew that as soon as the children were out of school I was going down there to live. I thought Phil [Vickery, her then husband] would too, but unfortunately we just… that didn’t occur. But I used to be free to go.’
Her dad and mom Ruth and Tony handed away in 2018 and 2019 respectively. She and Phil introduced that their marriage was over in January 2020. ‘We simply needed to follow our own paths,’ she later informed {a magazine}. ‘Over time we realised we weren’t essentially having the form of life we as soon as did. It appeared proper to say “thank you” and transfer on.’
She put a courageous face on it then, however now Fern admits she was hit onerous. ‘It was tricky, because my mum and my father died very close to each other and unfortunately Phil and I divorced and the pandemic came. So Cornwall wrapped itself around me after a very difficult set of events.’
She lived there throughout Covid together with her daughters Winnie and Grace and that was good, however Fern was grieving. ‘Looking back, I don’t suppose I used to be as sane as I believed I used to be on the time,’ she says. ‘I remember endless days of indolence, not being able to go anywhere, not doing anything, not wanting to get out of bed.’
Fern was additionally in a number of bodily ache on the time, from arthritis in her knees and shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t go to the physician as a result of we couldn’t and there have been folks in additional want,’ she says. ‘But it was killing me.’
The turning level got here when a surgeon stated he would rebuild her shoulder. ‘I cried with relief.’ There was a ready checklist, although. ‘I knew I had a year. I’d been consuming myself silly. I used to be not shifting my physique and placing a number of weight on. I believed, “I’ve got to get fit for this.” So I logged into the Couch to 5K app on my cellphone and began working up and down the lanes. I received fairly evangelical about it. I’m working so much now, though not too far: 5K remains to be my stopping level.’
The operation final September was successful, and now Fern is trying ahead to a future on her phrases. ‘In my youth, I wasn’t at all times behaving very effectively. I received a couple of bit, let’s say? I didn’t get married till I used to be 31. I sowed my oats early on, then I’ve been very smart: a superb spouse, a superb mum, as a lot as I may have been, and now I can do what I would like.’
Is she searching for love once more? ‘I’m not courting. There’s an terrible lot I’d prefer to find out about myself first and to know that I’m able to be trying, in any other case you would possibly flip up as one other form of hysterical mess, saying, “He left me and it was awful!”
‘Not that Phil did go away me. You don’t need that form of dialog with a date who’s simply searching for somebody good to have dinner with. But I by no means wish to reside with anyone once more. I like my very own house,’ she says.
The single life fits her. ‘I have two fantastic girlfriends. I still have my stupid sense of humour with them. Anyone does a bum joke, it’s hilarious. One can talk about intercourse and all kinds of stuff.’
She joined her native church as a part of the restoration course of. ‘I’ve at all times had a religion however typically life will get in the way in which and also you don’t go. Now I’ve received on a regular basis on the earth and I like it. We’ve received such a pleasant congregation, very small, and an exquisite church.’
Fern entered the Celebrity Big Brother home in the course of the launch present on Monday night
She does sound content material. ‘What makes me happy is time to myself. I like my own company. My three pussycats give me great joy.’ But she’s predicting an early exit from Celebrity Big Brother. ‘I’ll most likely be out once more rapidly. Older folks shall be watching however it’s the youthful ones who vote.’
They’ll love her, absolutely? ‘They won’t know who I’m!’ she laughs. ‘A taxi picked me up from Paddington to get me here and the driver said, “Hello, Fearne Cotton, I think you’re nice.”’ He was speaking concerning the Radio 2 presenter. Fern was a lot too form to problem him. ‘I simply stated, “That’s lovely. Thank you very much.”’
The newly rebuilt Fern Britton feels at peace, and prepared for no matter occurs on the present. ‘Big Brother is a challenge mentally, I’m conscious of that, however I nonetheless suppose, “What an experience.” I wish to see inside that home.’
- Celebrity Big Brother airs from Sunday to Friday at 9pm on ITV1.