Fern Britton: TV Bosses Left Me in Tears

Fern Britton has claimed a This Morning editor once locked her in an office with another boss to berate her after telling her she was 'awful' midway through a show.

The TV presenter, 68, said she felt 'decimated' by the experience and recalled crying her make-up off before being told she needed to reapply it before leaving.

Discussing her exit from the show, Fern said she left the daytime programme because she was 'unhappy' and she felt her time there was 'very, very difficult'.

Recalling an experience in particular that has stayed with her, Fern said that after the show she was pulled into the office where she was 'shredded' by two editors.

She claimed she sat there sobbing and that one of them asked her where her make-up bag was and to put more on before she left the office.

James O'Brien, who was interviewing Fern on his Full Disclosure podcast, asked her whether this was so that nobody would know that she had been crying.

When questioned about her exit from the show after 10 years, she said: 'I left This Morning because I was very unhappy there. The editor hated me, Frank hated me. It was made very, very difficult for me.

'There was one morning when the editor walked in at 8 o'clock sort of halfway through the morning and he came through the forest of cameras and he said to me, you are terrible, you are awful, now sit down there and do another hour. 

'After the show he called me into his office and locked it, he was in there with his deputy editor and they just shredded me and I cried and cried and cried.

'It was a Friday and he said you're not leaving this office until you put some make-up on. I said "well it's in the bag, on the desk" and he went and he got my bag and I had to put my make-up on in front of him.

James asked: 'Because he didn't want everyone to know you'd been crying? Or..'

Fern concluded: 'What he did was really bad, it really decimated me.'

Ahead of Fern's This Morning departure in 2009, she famously fell out with her co-host Phillip Schofield and they haven't spoken since.

Phillip claimed in his autobiography their relationship was 'beyond repair'.

It was claimed at the time she felt 'undervalued by ITV' and that she was 'living in Phil's shadow'. 

Despite this, Fern in recent years that said she had 'great fun' hosting This Morning with her former pal whilst speaking about his own exit from the breakfast show.

Speaking to Saga, she said: 'It brought up a lot of mixed emotions. The years we worked together were mostly great fun and we were a very good partnership, which I can remember with fondness.

'I knew how much he loved his job and cared deeply for his public perception. It must have been a terribly difficult time for him and his family.'

In 2022, Fern  when she congratulated Phillip in a video message to celebrate his 40th anniversary in television. 

Last year, the mother-of-four returned to screens, appearing on Celebrity Big Brother alongside Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne. 

Phillip

Holly Willoughby, who , released a statement at the time saying she had felt 'hurt' by his 'lies'.

Holly stepped down from presenting This Morning after 14 years on the show due to a terrifying kidnap threat and subsequently .

Since leaving This Morning, Fern became a successful author, publishing a number of Sunday Times best selling novels - as well as appearing in various TV projects.

She presented BBC series Fern Britton Meets, as well as The Big Allotment Challenge, and The Watercolour Challenge, and appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in 2024.

In 2020, Fern announced that she had 'unexpectedly' split from her husband of 20 years, fellow TV star and celebrity chef Phil Vickery.

Speaking to Good Housekeeping in 2023, Fern said she has 'entered a new phase of her life', because she is no longer married and her children are now adults.

She explained: 'It's as if this whole other world has opened up. I never thought this would happen; I didn't expect to be 65 and single and really relaxed.'

Back in 2022, Fern's former husband Phil was spotted kissing her former best friend Lorraine Stanton - leaving Fern 'heartbroken and dumbstruck'.

A source told Daily Mail at the time that Fern was left embarrassed by the news becoming public so made a statement in order to minimise the situation and 'stop it getting out control'.

Fern has since revealed she has been making changes in her life both physically and mentally after feeling like she wasn't doing enough to look after herself.

The former This Morning host explained: 'About a year or so ago, I realised that I wasn't looking after myself – physically or mentally.

'I wasn't doing exercise, I was eating too much and suddenly, it was like I flipped a switch and I thought, "No, you've got to look after yourself'.

'So I started doing that, and it's given me a new sort of energy. I do a bit of yoga and I've started doing the Couch to 5k running app.

'I'm very slow - I've got arthritis in one of my knees and I'm about to have a shoulder replacement – but I just thought, "It's only three miles, come on!" I'm not intending to run a long marathon or beat anybody, but I do enjoy the fitness side of it.'