Latest news with #PhilVickery
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fern Britton: ‘My mum died, my dad died, then my marriage died'
Fern Britton beams at me through my laptop screen, looking joyful and glowy, with a light tan thanks to the blissful spring weather she's been enjoying at her home, close to Padstow in Cornwall. Looking easily a decade younger than her 67 years – she'll be 68 next month – Britton is here to talk to me (bar interruption by one of her three cats) about her latest novel, her 11th, A Cornish Legacy. But of course there is a lot of other ground to cover as well. Britton is after all one of our best loved TV presenters, who co-presented Breakfast Time in the 1980s before moving onto Ready Steady Cook – where she met now ex-husband Phil Vickery – and then to This Morning, where she co-hosted with Phillip Schofield until 2009, leaving amid reports of a feud. Last year she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, coming fifth, and as well as regularly popping up on our screens since her This Morning departure, she's also dedicated herself to her novel-writing. Several are set in Cornwall, where she moved after her split from Vickery, father of her child Winnie. She also has grown up children – twins Harry and Jack and daughter Grace – from her marriage to Clive Jones. As we chat, she explains her latest plot centres around a character, Cordelia Jago, who has lost everything but is then left a house in Cornwall. With Britton having experienced a very difficult few years herself, is the plot semi-autobiographical? 'Not intentionally so, but I think the unconscious mind talks to you. I didn't realise it for a while and then I thought, hang on, this is sort of the life I've had for the last few years – but without the sprawling old mansion. In contrast, my house is very normal and only 30 years old.' Though she determinedly makes light of it, life has thrown one misfortune after another in her direction over the past decade. Having undergone a hysterectomy in 2016, she contracted sepsis and very nearly died. 'Then my mum died in 2018 and my dad died in 2019 and then my marriage [to chef Phil Vickery] died. Next, I discovered that my phone had been hacked for 15 years [by News of the World]. And last year a man who was stalking me for several years went to court and was given a restraining order. For a while, I was wondering what else could possibly happen. But lots of women endure difficult stuff and we just live with it and keep going.' Key to her resilience and recovery from all the tumult has been, much like her latest heroine, her surroundings. She can walk to the beach in under half an hour and when she sleeps with the windows open, she can hear the sea from her bed. 'Cornwall is my medicine. It feels like a very comforting, healing place to me,' she says. So much so that, despite previously talking openly about needing anti-depressants for several years, she is now medication-free, her last prescription being some three or four years ago. 'I'm in a good place. I know the difference between depression and a kind of overloaded anxiety that we all get. I feel that I've found the person that I used to be and I'm enjoying life and having fun.' There's no hankering after her former Buckinghamshire home and, although she acknowledges she didn't anticipate being single and needing to work in her mid-60s, there's no bitterness when she talks about the end of her second marriage. 'Divorce is not a breeze. No matter how you hope it's going to be easy and pain-free, inevitably it isn't. It's difficult and brings up a lot of unpleasant characteristics in everybody. Then, when it's finally over, there's a little bit of time where you have to just let the emotions subside. And then you can start looking back on how things were good and it was unfortunate that it just ran out of steam or whatever it was.' So, working on her novels comes from a place of need – as well as enjoying writing, Britton reveals she's disciplined at making herself sit at her desk every morning for a few hours before spending time with friends or out in nature in the afternoon. 'I have to be motivated because no one's going to look after me, and it's vital that women are financially independent. We can't say it loudly or more often enough to young women, and there's no shame in it. We need to be able to earn money and look after ourselves.' She's also become very motivated when it comes to looking after her health, she says. Just before the pandemic, in early 2020, she injured her right shoulder badly while emptying her bin and endured more than two years of severe pain. Partly as a result of this and the repeated lockdowns of that time, she started smoking and didn't focus on exercise or diet. It was thanks to the NHS surgeon who recommended a full shoulder replacement that she took herself in hand, she says. In the initial consultation he told her to quit smoking and suggested she lose some weight to best prepare for the operation. 'I had a year to get fit for the operation, so did the Couch to 5km app and gave up smoking. That and being pain-free after the operation has been a great gift. It's given me such a boost.' Now, as well as jogging three times a week, she is also doing weights and stretches to keep herself in good shape and she's noticed her legs getting noticeably stronger and her tummy getting flatter. 'Actually, I'm very proud of myself. People are obsessed with what size you are and this isn't about that. This is about staying fit for my kids so they don't have to worry about me and it's about enjoying this stage of life.' When I ask what she thinks of the current craze for midlifers to turn to drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro to control their weight rather than how she's doing it, Britton is entirely non-judgemental and says everyone needs to choose what is right for them. Moreover, she is passionate about people being allowed to keep their diet tactics private, rather than feeling they must tell everyone about it. She clearly still feels bruised by the tabloid stories about her own choice to have a gastric band back in the days she was presenting This Morning – stories that she now knows only came to light because her phone was hacked. 'I would say to anyone, do what you feel you need to feel good about yourself. If you want to take a medicine to kick start your weight loss then do it and you don't have to tell anyone about it,' she says. 'After my gastric band, I never felt guilty about it. I just thought, I'd do this one thing for me. But that privacy was taken away from me. And I couldn't work out who was saying these things. It had an awful impact on my life. And it damaged my relationship with my mother, who died before the truth came to light.' Among the pastimes helping her put such terrible hurt behind her is hanging out with a couple of very close friends who live nearby, going by the nicknames of Two Cups and Boo – the three of them enjoying weekly line-dancing classes together complete with 'proper cowboy boots'. And being a regular churchgoer has also become an important part of her life, providing a 'lovely, supportive community of people'. We can also look forward to Britton being back on our screens from July, when she presents a new programme, Fern Britton: Inside The Vet's, on ITV1 and ITVX, something she's loved filming. This reveals what happens to beloved pets behind closed doors when they need medical treatment. 'We see it all – I've been in on lots of operations and there are some really good stories,' she says. 'It's uplifting and very warm.' So, looking ahead, what ambitions does she have both professionally and personally? Her dream, she shares, would be for one of her novels to be made into a movie – possibly The Good Servant, published in 2022, which told the story of a royal governess in the 1930s. 'I'm not betting the ranch on it, but there's some interest and it would be amazing if that happened.' She's also working on the next novel, which she says is currently flowing easily. Meanwhile, when it comes to family Britton says she's learnt not to ask any of her four adult children about the prospect of grandchildren; 'They all say to me, 'Mother, don't even ask!'' But for herself she isn't ruling out the prospect of finding new love – 'the door is unlocked to that. Not exactly open, but unlocked,' she says. 'In A Cornish Legacy, you'll have to read to the end, but a very nice man arrives for Cordelia. He's called Ray – normal name, normal guy. What you see is what you get and he's great. Someone like that would do.' A Cornish Legacy, published by HarperCollins, is out June 5 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Fern Britton: ‘My mum died, my dad died, then my marriage died'
Fern Britton beams at me through my laptop screen, looking joyful and glowy, with a light tan thanks to the blissful spring weather she's been enjoying at her home, close to Padstow in Cornwall. Looking easily a decade younger than her 67 years – she'll be 68 next month – Britton is here to talk to me (bar interruption by one of her three cats) about her latest novel, her 11th, A Cornish Legacy. But of course there is a lot of other ground to cover as well. Britton is after all one of our best loved TV presenters, who co-presented Breakfast Time in the 1980s before moving onto Ready Steady Cook – where she met now ex-husband Phil Vickery – and then to This Morning, where she co-hosted with Phillip Schofield until 2009, leaving amid reports of a feud. Last year she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, coming fifth, and as well as regularly popping up on our screens since her This Morning departure, she's also dedicated herself to her novel-writing. Several are set in Cornwall, where she moved after her split from Vickery, father of her child Winnie. She also has grown up children – twins Harry and Jack and daughter Grace – from her marriage to Clive Jones. As we chat, she explains her latest plot centres around a character, Cordelia Jago, who has lost everything but is then left a house in Cornwall. With Britton having experienced a very difficult few years herself, is the plot semi-autobiographical? 'Not intentionally so, but I think the unconscious mind talks to you. I didn't realise it for a while and then I thought, hang on, this is sort of the life I've had for the last few years – but without the sprawling old mansion. In contrast, my house is very normal and only 30 years old.' Though she determinedly makes light of it, life has thrown one misfortune after another in her direction over the past decade. Having undergone a hysterectomy in 2016, she contracted sepsis and very nearly died. 'Then my mum died in 2018 and my dad died in 2019 and then my marriage [to chef Phil Vickery] died. Next, I discovered that my phone had been hacked for 15 years [by News of the World ]. And last year a man who was stalking me for several years went to court and was given a restraining order. For a while, I was wondering what else could possibly happen. But lots of women endure difficult stuff and we just live with it and keep going.' Key to her resilience and recovery from all the tumult has been, much like her latest heroine, her surroundings. She can walk to the beach in under half an hour and when she sleeps with the windows open, she can hear the sea from her bed. 'Cornwall is my medicine. It feels like a very comforting, healing place to me,' she says. So much so that, despite previously talking openly about needing anti-depressants for several years, she is now medication-free, her last prescription being some three or four years ago. 'I'm in a good place. I know the difference between depression and a kind of overloaded anxiety that we all get. I feel that I've found the person that I used to be and I'm enjoying life and having fun.' There's no hankering after her former Buckinghamshire home and, although she acknowledges she didn't anticipate being single and needing to work in her mid-60s, there's no bitterness when she talks about the end of her second marriage. ' Divorce is not a breeze. No matter how you hope it's going to be easy and pain-free, inevitably it isn't. It's difficult and brings up a lot of unpleasant characteristics in everybody. Then, when it's finally over, there's a little bit of time where you have to just let the emotions subside. And then you can start looking back on how things were good and it was unfortunate that it just ran out of steam or whatever it was.' So, working on her novels comes from a place of need – as well as enjoying writing, Britton reveals she's disciplined at making herself sit at her desk every morning for a few hours before spending time with friends or out in nature in the afternoon. 'I have to be motivated because no one's going to look after me, and it's vital that women are financially independent. We can't say it loudly or more often enough to young women, and there's no shame in it. We need to be able to earn money and look after ourselves.' She's also become very motivated when it comes to looking after her health, she says. Just before the pandemic, in early 2020, she injured her right shoulder badly while emptying her bin and endured more than two years of severe pain. Partly as a result of this and the repeated lockdowns of that time, she started smoking and didn't focus on exercise or diet. It was thanks to the NHS surgeon who recommended a full shoulder replacement that she took herself in hand, she says. In the initial consultation he told her to quit smoking and suggested she lose some weight to best prepare for the operation. 'I had a year to get fit for the operation, so did the Couch to 5km app and gave up smoking. That and being pain-free after the operation has been a great gift. It's given me such a boost.' Now, as well as jogging three times a week, she is also doing weights and stretches to keep herself in good shape and she's noticed her legs getting noticeably stronger and her tummy getting flatter. 'Actually, I'm very proud of myself. People are obsessed with what size you are and this isn't about that. This is about staying fit for my kids so they don't have to worry about me and it's about enjoying this stage of life.' When I ask what she thinks of the current craze for midlifers to turn to drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro to control their weight rather than how she's doing it, Britton is entirely non-judgemental and says everyone needs to choose what is right for them. Moreover, she is passionate about people being allowed to keep their diet tactics private, rather than feeling they must tell everyone about it. She clearly still feels bruised by the tabloid stories about her own choice to have a gastric band back in the days she was presenting This Morning – stories that she now knows only came to light because her phone was hacked. 'I would say to anyone, do what you feel you need to feel good about yourself. If you want to take a medicine to kick start your weight loss then do it and you don't have to tell anyone about it,' she says. 'After my gastric band, I never felt guilty about it. I just thought, I'd do this one thing for me. But that privacy was taken away from me. And I couldn't work out who was saying these things. It had an awful impact on my life. And it damaged my relationship with my mother, who died before the truth came to light.' Among the pastimes helping her put such terrible hurt behind her is hanging out with a couple of very close friends who live nearby, going by the nicknames of Two Cups and Boo – the three of them enjoying weekly line-dancing classes together complete with 'proper cowboy boots'. And being a regular churchgoer has also become an important part of her life, providing a 'lovely, supportive community of people'. We can also look forward to Britton being back on our screens from July, when she presents a new programme, Fern Britton: Inside The Vet's, on ITV1 and ITVX, something she's loved filming. This reveals what happens to beloved pets behind closed doors when they need medical treatment. 'We see it all – I've been in on lots of operations and there are some really good stories,' she says. 'It's uplifting and very warm.' So, looking ahead, what ambitions does she have both professionally and personally? Her dream, she shares, would be for one of her novels to be made into a movie – possibly The Good Servant, published in 2022, which told the story of a royal governess in the 1930s. 'I'm not betting the ranch on it, but there's some interest and it would be amazing if that happened.' She's also working on the next novel, which she says is currently flowing easily. Meanwhile, when it comes to family Britton says she's learnt not to ask any of her four adult children about the prospect of grandchildren; 'They all say to me, 'Mother, don't even ask!'' But for herself she isn't ruling out the prospect of finding new love – 'the door is unlocked to that. Not exactly open, but unlocked,' she says. 'In A Cornish Legacy, you'll have to read to the end, but a very nice man arrives for Cordelia. He's called Ray – normal name, normal guy. What you see is what you get and he's great. Someone like that would do.'
The Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
This Morning chaos as technical blunder sees Sharon Marshall forced to call chef Phil live on air
A TECHNICAL blunder on This Morning forced Sharon Marshall to call chef Phil live on air. The ITV show is no stranger to experiencing technical blunders on some occasions. 4 4 4 Viewers had already seen Phil, 64, cooking up a tasty meal in This Morning's allotment. Presenters Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley ran into an unfortunate technical blunder while trying to get an update. Ben, 46, told the audience: "Phil is cooking up a delicious dish for the whole family and he's live from The This Morning allotment." "It looks wonderful down there, Philip. We're trying to connect up his ear - can you hear us, Phil?" The technical blunder saw Phil unable to hear Ben as he instead continued preparing the dish he was working. Cat laughed as she quipped: "He could be just ignoring us", while Ben remarked: "Oh, dear." Looking for a solution, Ben asked out loud: "Has anyone got a phone? Someone phone him. Can the cameraman hear us?" He added: "So, nobody can hear us at the moment. This is quite fun, we can just watch them and see what they get up to." In the background, soaps expert Sharon Marshall said she was calling Phil on her phone. After showing a contest for viewers, however, the show was soon back on track. This Morning star reveals HUGE change to the show amid ITV cuts The presenters managed to successfully connect to Phil in the allotment this time. Elsewhere, a This Morning star revealed bosses have made a U-turn on a bizarre rule amid ITV cuts. Sweeping changes were announced last month to ITV Daytime shows that will impact the likes of This Morning, Loose Women and Lorraine. More than 220 jobs will be lost as part of the shake-up — meaning almost half of the 450 employed on the four flagship shows GMB, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women will be let go. But amid the changes, This Morning have introduced a style change. Ben Shephard's career to date 1998 - Got his big break when he hosted The Bigger Breakfast for Channel 4 2000 - Joined GMTV breakfast (now GMB) presenting Entertainment Today before becoming a permanent host in 2005 2004 - Ben hosted the first three series of The X Factor's spin-off series Xtra Factor 2006 - Presented singing contestant Soapstar Superstar alongside Ferne Britton 2006 - Landed his own Saturday show with Magic Radio 2008 - Hosted Who Dares, Sings! with Denise van Outen 2009 - Ben presented revived the classic game show The Krypton Factor 2010 - Signed a reported £495k deal with Sky Sports to front Goals on Sunday and other sporting specials 2013 - Returned to ITV daytime with Tipping Point 2015 - Co-hosted Ninja Warrior UK with Rochelle Humes and Chris Kamara 2019 - Quit Sky Sports and Goals on Sunday 2024 - Left Good Morning Britain to join This Morning with Cat Deeley The show has long had an unwritten rule in place that meant presenters could not wear a specific item of clothing. However, show staple Rochelle Humes said on TikTok: "There's a new rule, we didn't used to be allowed to wear jeans, did we? "But we can wear jeans now. This is amazing news for me." This Morning airs on ITV1 and ITVX. 4
The Sun
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Fern Britton reveals how she lost five stone after end of 20-year marriage and ‘lying in bed feeling sorry for herself'
wake up call The former presenter said she needed to get her life 'back on track' FERN Britton says she chose to lose five stone over lying in bed "feeling sorry for herself". The ex This Morning presenter, 67, has been on a health kick for 18-months after realising: "I need to get my life back on track." 3 3 She told how she quit booze and smoking and cut 80 per cent of sugar out her diet to lose the weight naturally. Celebrity Big Brother star Fern told Woman&Home magazine: "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 said of her twin sons Harry and Jack, 31, and daughter Grace, 27, from her first marriage, to Clive Jones, and daughter Winnie, 23, with Phil Vickery: "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 says a shoulder replacement kick-started her need to get her eating under control. She started the Couch to 5K and has today been showing off her new look, five stone down. It comes after the end of her 20-year marriage to TV chef Phil. "I told myself, 'I need to stop smoking, stop drinking, get eating under control and stop lying in bed feeling sorry for myself'", Fern added. She admits she's "feeling pretty good", but "it would be foolish to say I feel spot on 100 per cent of the time" since the split. 3
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Fern Britton, 67, says she's still not looking for love but does get 'lonely' five years on from Phil Vickery split
Fern Britton has admitted that while she does get 'lonely', she is still not looking for love five years on from her split from TV chef Phil Vickery. The host, 67, made the revelation in a candid new interview where she opened up about her post-This Morning life in as a novelist in Cornwall. The couple's 20-year marriage came to an end in 2020 following the deaths of Fern's parents, which reportedly caused the pair to realise that they had to 'follow their own paths'. She told Woman & Home: 'I'm not looking for love - 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.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The couple's marriage came to an end in 2020 following the deaths of Fern's parents, which reportedly caused the her and Phil (pictured) to realise that they had to 'follow their own paths' Ferne, who recently shed five stone, said that she is feeling good about life even without a partner. However, she admitted that spending the majority of her time alone writing with her cats can get lonely. The star is currently promoting her 11th novel, A Cornish Legacy, which a woman who has left a successful London career to start a new life in Cornwall. The character, like Fern said of her marriage breakdown, is prompted to make the move when her life falls apart. In the new interview, she also explained how she managed to lose so much weight, crediting the transformation to healthier habits. She said: '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." '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.' Reflecting on her past habits, Ferne said she had a sugar addiction that stemmed from childhood, but now sticks to three 'sensible' meals a day. But while Ferne is physically looking fantastic, she admitted that she does have her health troubles and is struggling with deafness. She said she has been using hearing aids for the past 10 years, she but struggled to get comfortable with them until a year ago. Even now, she prefers to not have them in because they cause her to hear all the 'clatter' in a room and not the people she is speaking to. She said: 'Taking them out is lovely, but I also know that [without them], I miss out on a lot of things and I mishear everything.' The star also said that her life motto is to never look back and stressed that she has no intentions of a return to This Morning and very much identifies as an author now.
