Fern Britton, 67, reveals the turning point behind her 5st weight loss as she poses for stunning Woman&Home shoot
The beloved presenter, 67, has long been open about her weight struggles, having fluctuated between a size 22 and a size 12 over the years.
Now, in a candid new interview, Fern reflected on the powerful moment she decided to take back control of her health.
She told the publication: 'People often wonder when you lose lots of weight whether you've done it naturally. And I can look at you and say, 'Yes, I have.'
'I had my shoulder replacement 18 months ago, and two-and-a-half years ago, when I saw the surgeon, he said, 'I'm going to totally replace your shoulder, I'll see you in a year.' I thought, 'I need to get my life back on track.
'I need to stop smoking, stop drinking, get eating under control and stop lying in bed feeling sorry for myself.'
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She continued: 'So I started the Couch to 5k, took about 80% of the sugar out of my life and started to think about what I was eating, which I had never done before.
'As a child, I just couldn't stop eating sugar, so [I ended up with a] big sugar addiction. I never had the button that said, 'Stop eating, you've had enough.'
'Curiously, having three sensible meals a day – which everyone has told me [to do] for the last 60 years – actually worked!'
'Exercise is part of my life. I go to a gym when my daughter, Grace, who's in nursing, isn't on a shift – we meet at 6am to do a class. I'm also cycling and starting the Couch to 5K again,' Fern added.
Elsewhere in the interview, the presenter opened up about approaching 70, admitting she feels it's her 'duty to stay healthy' for her children.
Fern has twin sons Harry and Jack, 31, and daughter Grace, 27, from her first marriage, to Clive Jones, and daughter Winnie, 23, with Phil Vickery.
She said: 'I'm just two years off 70 so it's very real. I can't believe it, actually!
'At times, I get more tired than I used to or when I'm working in the garden, I think, 'That's heavy.
She continued: 'I had my shoulder replacement 18 months ago, and two-and-a-half years ago, when I saw the surgeon, he said, 'I'm going to totally replace your shoulder, I'll see you in a year.' I thought, 'I need to get my life back on track'
Elsewhere in the interview, the presenter opened up about approaching 70, admitting she feels it's her 'duty to stay healthy' for her children
You can read the full interview in Woman & Home's July issue which goes on sale May 29
'I used to be able to lift that.' It is my duty to stay as healthy as I can for the sake of my children.'
The star continued: 'I don't want them to feel guilty about not seeing me or worried about me if I'm not well. It's important that I show them I'm living my own life well.'
Fern has kept her private life out of the spotlight since calling it a off with TV chef, Phil, 63, in 2020, after 20 years.
On looking for love, she told the publication: 'I'm still a bit too wary of losing my liberty.
'There's nobody to run something past but, on the other hand, I think back to running things past people and it never really worked out, so why don't I just make my own decision?
'Then I'm the only person who can go, 'I f***ed up there.' I'm feeling pretty good [but] it would be foolish to say I feel spot on 100% of the time.
'Cats are great companions but there are days when I'm actually quite lonely because sitting, writing on your own is lonely, but it's good to admit it.'
As for her latest project, Fern has another novel coming out, which centres on Wilderhoo - a fictional 1,000-year-old Cornish house that has gone to rack and ruin.
Five years ago, the presenter moved permanently into her Cornish holiday home before renovating it 'bit by bit'.
A Cornish Legacy, which is Fern's 11th novel and comes out on June 5, took the star two years to write – twice longer than normal.
'I'm used to producing one a year at least, so I'm sorry for the delay but I was a bit busy,' she told the publication.
Last year, the beauty took part in Celebrity Big Brother and finished in fifth place.
However, TV is no longer a top professional priority. She bid farewell to This Morning, which she co-hosted for 10 years alongside John Leslie and, later, Phillip Schofield, before quitting in 2009.
She said: 'My forefront is now being a writer and it's taken me a long time to accept that. Gosh, yes, I can say I'm an author now!'
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It reveals a complex, intelligent, devoutly religious king scarred by childhood trauma but given to breathtaking arrogance; a dog lover, fashion plate and patron of the arts who hated smoking almost as much as he hated witches, and who managed to hold together two fractious nations, but had a weakness for pretty young Galleries, Scotland: Portrait, to Sep 14, ★★★☆☆Curated by the IKEA Museum in Almhult, Sweden, this jolly exhibition traces the early development of the massive interiors brand's textile division and highlights the designers behind some of its most popular fabrics (such as Inez Svensson's banana print — a nice detail is that when she died in 2005 she requested her coffin be draped in it). It's really only mildly interesting, but it's enjoyable, and does make you want to buy new cushions. Dovecot Studios, to Jan 17, • Edinburgh festivals 2025: the best theatre, music and dance shows ★★★★★It's rare to see Andy Goldsworthy's work inside a gallery — mostly he makes it in the landscape, out of natural materials, then leaves it to the mercies of nature, often to disappear altogether. This poetic, gently witty, quietly magical show includes photography and video documentation of some of his more ephemeral works, as well as objects and large installations that recognise and pay tribute to our integral relationship with the land. With works ranging from an elegiac room of stones displaced by human burials to vast paintings made by the muddy feet of hungry sheep, it's a strangely touching experience that makes you want to immediately tramp up Arthur's Seat, fires permitting, and hold your arms Scottish Academy, to Nov 2, ★★★★☆With their quiet clarity, soft palette and domestic focus, the paintings of the Philadelphia-based artist Aubrey Levinthal feel familiar in a way that is comforting yet disquieting. Revolving around life with her husband, son and friends, they are full of relatable detail that you rarely see in painting — a Tupperware containing the remnants of lunch; the startling black of a laptop screen reflecting an overhead light; a charger; discarded hoop earrings; an escapist scribble of spaghetti; drooping houseplants; children clustering around an iPad. She skilfully evokes, too, the solitude that comes with the territory of artist — and motherhood. Don't miss her prints in the hallway of the gallery, or the small exhibition upstairs of gorgeous canvases by Mia Kokkoni, a recent graduate based in Gallery, to Sep 13, • Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025: the best comedy shows to see ★★★★☆The glorious sculpture park of Jupiter Artland is always worth visiting, but every summer a couple of new commissions are presented there, and the standout this year is the film-maker Guy Oliver's new piece, Millennial Prayer. Looking back at the day we briefly thought the clocks were going to stop, this hour-long, highly entertaining exploration of a cultural moment that was hugely significant and a complete damp squib wields deadpan humour to create a nonchalantly acute social Artland, to Sep 28, ★★★★☆Exquisitely made and totally compelling, this exhibition by the Egyptian artist Wael Shawky centres on two films about politics and history. The two-hour epic (part of a trilogy) Cabaret Crusades III: The Secrets of Karbala uses intricate glass marionettes, some of which are on display ('We are all like marionettes, manipulated by forces we cannot see,' he says), to give an Arab perspective on the context and motivation underpinning the Crusades. The strange but stunning Drama 1882 is an operatic rendition of Egypt's abortive nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial rule, undermined by the British to protect its interests in the region and leading to Britain's occupation of Egypt until 1956. Most visitors won't sit through them, but they're really worth your time. Talbot Rice Gallery, to Sep 28, • Read more art reviews, guides and interviews ★★★★☆At the heart of Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden, Inverleith House feels like an oddly appropriate location for this 50-year survey of work by the post-punk feminist artist Linder, who often draws on floral imagery to wittily subvert the tropes of femininity. Her scalpel-sharp, surgically executed photomontages critique conventional assumptions about gender and sexuality. From soft porn spliced with images of domestic appliances to photographs of the working-class drag clubs of 1970s Manchester, she kicks hard and precisely where it hurts. Inverleith House, to Oct 19, ★★★☆☆Mike Nelson creates immersive environments from salvaged materials that are stuffed with cultural references. They're not always easy to read, and this, a study in the politics of construction and destruction across all three gallery spaces, is no different — the short film upstairs, in which he reluctantly explains where he's coming from, is by far the most helpful place to start. Based on two sets of photographs — one of Mardin, a predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey that was at the time in a remarkable state of infrastructural redevelopment, and one of an unnamed London housing estate in the last silent days before its destruction — it's a cumulative experience that is more poetic and atmospheric than expressive. Make sure you visit the warehouse section of the gallery (through the café, then through a big metal door) or you'll be to Oct 5, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
