Fern Britton found out in her 50s how she was conceived
Fern Britton found out in her 50s how she was conceived
"There were so many secrets when I was growing up. I never grew up with my father and didn't know what had happened"
(Image: PA )
Fern Britton found out in her 50s that she was conceived during a one-night stand.
The 66-year-old TV presenter discovered her late dad, actor Tony Britton, left her late mum Ruth and her sister Cherry, but after he went back to their home to visit them, Tony "jumped back into bed" with Ruth and they made Fern.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, she explained: "There were so many secrets when I was growing up. I never grew up with my father and didn't know what had happened.
"When I was in my 50s he told me he'd left my mum and sister, but on a visit home, he jumped back into bed with my mum.
"By the time he was finished and gone, I was conceived.
"Everybody must have known but nobody told me."
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The former This Morning host had Ruth's "energy" when she and Tony divorced.
Fern said: "My mum and dad divorced when I was very young, and she focused all her energy on me."
The Celebrity Big Brother 2024 housemate's grandmother gave away a child, and she came into contact with Ruth's half-brother after he got in touch with Fern via a letter.
She explained: "And also my grandmother - she had a child out of wedlock in 1914.
"One day, when I was working in TV down here, I got a letter from a man saying he was my mum's half-brother.
"He was the boy my grandmother had to give away."
Fern's personal life experiences inspired her latest fictional novel, A Cornish Legacy.
The book covers themes of loss, identity and starting life over again.
The latter links with the theme of divorce, which Fern went through with TV executive Clive Jones in 2000 after 12 years of marriage.
The author - who has 31-year-old twin sons Jack and Harry, and a 27-year-old daughter called Grace with Clive - split from This Morning chef Phil Vickery in 2020 after a 20-year romance, and the pair have not talked since Ruth died in 2018.
In an interview with Yours magazine, Fern admitted: "He hasn't spoken to me for six years now.
"As soon as my mum died, he stopped talking to me."
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The star insists she tries "very hard" to not "bad-mouth" Phil for the sake of their 23-year-old daughter Winnie.
She said: "Winnie adores him. I'm not going to bad-mouth him in front of her; at least, I try very hard not to.
"I was the child of divorced parents and my mum never bad-mouthed my father."
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