2 days ago
Fern Britton claims ex Phil Vickery 'stopped talking to her' after huge loss
Fern Britton has claimed her ex-husband, TV chef Phil Vickery, 'stopped talking' to her following the loss of her mum.
The TV presenter, 67, and Phil, 64, were married for two decades before their 2020 divorce, which came as Fern's parents died.
In a new interview, Fern has claimed Phil stopped talking to her after the death of her mother in 2018, and she's had no contact since.
'He hasn't spoken to me for six years now. As soon as my mum died, he stopped talking to me,' she said told Yours Magazine.
Fern shares daughter Winnie Vickery, 23, with Phil, so says she will try to never bad-mouth him.
The former This Morning presenter explained: '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.'
When announcing their separation in 2020, Fern's statement read: 'After more than 20 happy years together, Phil and I have decided to go our separate ways.
'We will always share a great friendship and our lovely children.'
She later said that she and Phil 'fell apart' following the death of her parents. Fern's mother, Ruth Britton, died in January 2018. Her father, actor Tony Britton, died shortly after.
Fern and Phil's divorce came after her 2016 hysterectomy and a near-fatal sepsis diagnosis.
'Then my mum died in 2018 and my dad died in 2019, and then my marriage [to chef Vickery] died,' she said in a recent interview with The Telegraph,
'Next, I discovered that my phone had been hacked for 15 years. 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.'
Phil was Fern's second husband, as she was married to Clive Jones for two years before divorcing in 2000. Clive is the father of Fern's three other children: Jack, Harry, and Grace.
She added that divorce was 'not a breeze', adding: '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.'
Fern previously opened up about her mental and physical health struggles following the divorce and her parents' deaths, saying she 'fell into this era of indolence' where she 'just started lying in bed later and later and later'.
'What was the purpose of getting up and getting dressed or getting showered or cleaning my teeth because I will soon be back in bed.
'Why don't I start smoking? Yes. Drinking. Yes, eating yes, the whole thing. And then it took me about a year to realise that I put a lot of weight on, that I was not breathing well.' More Trending
Now, Fern says she's found her old self again, and is 'enjoying life and having fun' in her Cornish home, where she moved after her divorce.
Phil and Fern originally met on the set of BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook and married in spring 2000.
Fern has just released her 11th novel, A Cornish Legacy, which tells the story of a woman called Cordelia Jago, as she inherits a crumbling mansion in Cornwall having lost everything.
Metro has contacted Phil Vickery's representative for comment.
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