TV star Fern Britton is back on Tipping Point: Lucky Stars this weekend in a rerun episode from season 7, which originally aired in April 2021 – since which time there have been developments in the apparent feud between her and former This Morning co-host Phillip Schofield.
Fern’s co-competitors this week are Iain Stirling and Mark-Francis Vandelli.
Before Christmas, her appearance on The One Show prompted several viewers to comment on Fern’s perceived weight loss on social media.
She’s due to make a surprise return to This Morning – as a host? – although it’s not clear exactly when. She appeared as a guest early last year. The “exciting news” followed her successful appearance on Celebrity Big Brother.
Tracing the Fern Britton feud with Phillip Schofield back to 2002
Fern Britton first appeared on This Morning as a guest presenter way back in 1993, long before Phillip Schofield joined the program.
She began fronting the show in September 1999, presenting the Friday edition with John Leslie. Three years later, she and John rose the ranks to become the series’ main hosts.
Phillip Schofield joined in August 2002, first as a Friday host – alongside John and Fern – and then, when John stepped aside in October of that year, as Fern’s co-host.
Elsewhere, Fern and Phillip co-hosted The British Soap Awards together from 2006 to 2008, and ITV’s Mr & Mrs from 2008 to 2010.
Fern pulled out of hosting the 2009 British Soap Awards, which she was due to front alongside Phillip. That was the same year she abruptly quit as his co-host on This Morning.
Fern didn’t quit because of a pay dispute
Around the time that Fern Britton left This Morning, reports circulated claiming that she had quit the show because she was receiving a lower salary than Phillip Schofield.
However, she shut down this rumour during a conversation with Ray D’Arcy in 2020, per Cosmopolitan.
“There was also a persistent rumour that I left because Phillip was being paid more than me,” she acknowledged.
“I always say to people, ‘Why would I leave a show to go to nothing if I was worried about money?’” No, what actually happened was…
“Something happened and I thought, ‘That’s it really’, and I walked away and resigned. I was treated pretty poorly, actually. And after a while I just thought, ‘Sod it’.”
No, she didn’t explain exactly what that “something” was. But Phillip had an idea in his autobiography…
Their feud spilled out onto Twitter in 2018
While she may not have been a presenter, Fern Britton appeared on This Morning occasionally after 2009, including in 2018, via video link.
That year, BAFTA celebrated This Morning and bestowed upon it a Special Award.
The awarding body’s press release didn’t mention Fern Britton, but the chair of its television committee recognised that, for 30 years, “the talent, innovation and boldness of This Morning has made it an exceptional contribution to television”.
Fern congratulated the show, saying the award was “absolutely wonderful and brilliant. I would have loved to have been there,” she added. “But I didn’t get an invitation.”
Phillip responded by explaining that, since she was performing in a Calendar Girls theatre production at the time, she wouldn’t have been able to attend. Fern told him she was actually free that night, and “would have come but I wasn’t invited”.
Schofield went on Twitter, now X, to say: “Odd really, because she was invited and declined #memoryloss we’d have loved her to be there. A vital and much loved part of the show.”
Fern didn’t let that slide, commenting on another user’s tweet that, “No,” she in fact “had no invitation to decline.”
Her agents later admitted that she had indeed received an invitation from Phil and the gang. However, they had neglected to pass it on, assuming that she wouldn’t be able to attend.
Phillip Schofield claims it was to do with This Morning’s content
In his autobiography, Phillip Schofield claims that his and Fern Britton’s fallout started because of a disagreement over the content on This Morning.
For “whatever reason,” he wrote, Fern decided to leave the show.
He added that their fall out was intense, and that the relationship was beyond repair, Cosmo adds.
Life Is What You Make It came out in 2020. In it, Phillip also writes about how he and Fern took “different approaches” to sourcing material, and how she once accused him “meddling” in the show’s contents.
Fern Britton downplays feud amid tabloid rumour-peddling
In 2023, The Sun published a quote – without saying who said it – about Fern’s attitude towards discussing Phillip while she was on Celebrity Big Brother.
Fern later told the Mirror: “Apparently I’ve signed up to spill the beans! Well, right now, I can tell you that I think let’s approach with caution and kindness. It’s fair to say that towards the end we were not getting on. Things were tricky.
“There are some things that I think as a collective almost nation there are things you can’t and wouldn’t want to hear or see or be talked about. I haven’t been on that show for 15 years. I don’t know anything that’s been going on since then. And so it would be A, very old views. B, not terribly interesting, but I did love This Morning. I absolutely loved it. I wasn’t expecting to resign on the day I resigned.
“There’s a lot of stuff that I have obviously learned from and toughened up a bit. And it hasn’t all been a breeze, but I don’t regret, apart from if I’d put my mind to it, I could have done more.”
Read more: Fern Britton admits fears over new lover years on from Phil Vickery split
Are you Team Fern or Team Phil, or neither? You can leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know.
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“Things were tricky”
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