Fern BrittonFern Britton has spoken out about the possibility of returning to This Morning following the departure of her former co-host Phillip Schofield.
The pair fronted the ITV daytime show together for seven years between 2002 and 2009, until Fern announced she was leaving, after which things reportedly soured between the two presenters.
Phillip remained with This Morning for an additional 14 years until his sudden exit earlier this year, which preceded his admission he had lied to bosses about an affair with a younger colleague on the show.
In a new interview with Good Housekeeping, Fern was asked whether she ever saw herself returning to the This Morning sofa, although she admitted it wasn’t something the envisaged.
“I don’t think I’d be able to turn the clock back; it wouldn’t work that way,” she insisted.
“My time at This Morning was marvellous and I adored the 10 years I was there, but I feel you should never look back.”
Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield in 2008After Fern left This Morning, it was widely reported she and Phillip had fallen out in a dispute about pay, although she has refuted this on multiple occasions.
Instead, she has said that she had stopped enjoying working on the show following an undisclosed incident on the morning she handed in her notice.
Phillip shed light on what he believed to be the cause of their fall-out in his 2020 autobiography, claiming the rift began when Fern apparently accused him of “meddling” in the show’s content.
“I walked back into the makeup room and calmly said, ‘Please don’t do that to me again,’” he said. “I think, for whatever reason, that was the point Fern decided she didn’t want to do This Morning any more.
“When she announced that she was leaving I was heartbroken. Heartbroken that our friendship had inexplicably gone so sour, and heartbroken because I’d never had a presenting partnership like that before.”
The two presenters were involved in a tense exchange live on This Morning in 2018, when Fern and accused the show of snubbing her from a special Bafta event that formed part of its 30th anniversary celebrations.
It later transpired she had been asked to attend the event, although her team did not pass the invitation along.
Read Fern’s full interview in the August 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping.
