Fern Britton has said that she feels as though her world has "opened up" since her split from Phil Vickery.
The couple, who previously worked on This Morning together, were married for 20 years before they called time on their relationship in January 2020. At the time, Fern had announced the news of the split shortly following her father's death.
However Fern said that, despite not expecting to be single at 65, she said that she feels "really relaxed" and is enjoying life alone and is now looking after herself.
“My children are grown-up and I’m no longer married, and it’s as if this whole other world has opened up,“ she told Good Housekeeping. “I never thought this would happen; I didn’t expect to be 65 and single and really relaxed.”
Fern and Phil had appeared on the show Ready Steady Cook and tied the knot in 2000. Announcing their break-up on Twitter she said the couple had decided to go their “separate ways.”
Talking about her health, she said that a switch had been flipped a year ago when she grew a desire to get fitter and healthier.
“About a year or so ago, I realised that I wasn’t looking after myself – physically or mentally,” Fern said. “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.”
Fern is also known for presenting the ITV breakfast programme This Morning, which she left in 2009. Discussing the possibility of making a return, she said: “I don’t think I’d be able to turn the clock back; it wouldn’t work that way.
“My time at This Morning was marvellous and I adored the 10 years I was there, but I feel you should never look back.”
Phillip Schofield, who co-presented This Morning with Britton from 2002 to 2009 and later with Holly Willoughby, left the show in May before admitting to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger colleague and stepping down from ITV.
Read the full interview with Fern Britton in the August 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale now and available in all supermarkets and online at MagsDirect.
