Ferne McCann has publicly apologised on This Morning for the voice note scandal she was embroiled in last year as she broke down in tears on the ITV show.
The former The Only Way is Essex star joined Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on Wednesday morning to talk about her life recently, ahead of the return of her reality programme, First Time Mum, tonight.
She revealed that during filming, there were dark moments of Ferne's life captured on camera as voice notes she allegedly sent were leaked on an anonymous Instagram account last year - which hit national headlines.
After a clip was shown to This Morning viewers of what's to come on tonight's episode of First Time Mum, Ferne can be seen crying as she speaks to her pal James Argent after the voice notes were leaked.
Ferne, who is currently pregnant with her second child, got emotional after watching the clip and Phil handed her a tissue to dry her tears.
Speaking about that time in her life, Ferne said: "It definitely wasn't my finest hour and it definitely was a very difficult time in my life, but I do, I need to take this opportunity to publicly apologise again to those affected, obviously, the words I used were unpleasant and I have reached out privately to those people and it's very difficult."
Ferne then went on to mention the fact that a criminal investigation into the incident is taking place, meaning she's unable to open up fully at this time.
She added: "I would love to sit here with you guys and share exactly what went on, but it's now part of a criminal investigation so I can't do that, but what I can say is these voice notes were from a time when I was in a very vulnerable situation and I have since then have done a lot of work on myself, I've been in therapy for six years and I feel like I am a different person."
Speaking about the incident being captured on First Time Mum, Ferne said: "When you find yourself in the eye of the storm it effects my family, my agent - everyone around me - and I felt hugely responsible, I was hurting, I hit some of my lowest moments, and, yeah of course you still have to get up and do the school run, and it was tough.
"I just feel grateful to the show, First Time Mum has been a lifeline for me."
Ferne went on to ask people to be patient with her and said that eventually she will be able to speak her whole truth as now as it's a police matter, she can't fully talk about it.
At the end of last year, an anonymous Instagram account began leaking voice notes allegedly from Ferne talking about her famous pals and in one recording a voice could be heard calling Sam Faires a 'fat c***'.
More recordings were then released, with one allegedly calling Sam a 'narcissistic b***h' and another allegedly taking aim at Billie over the name of her son being the same as Ferne's ex Arthur.
And in another one, Ferne branded Sophie Hall, who was scarred for life during the acid attack by McCann's ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins at a London nightspot in 2017, a "silly b***h" and "ugly" for wearing a papier-mache dress for a beauty pageant.
Shortly after, Ferne released a statement, saying: "I am aware that people will have a number of questions about the voice messages being put into the public domain and purportedly sent by me. I feel I have no choice but to address these (to the extent that I can as there are restrictions on me which I explain below).
"Most importantly I want to apologise to all the victims of Arthur Collins's abhorrent actions in 2017 that they have to relive that night and the pain that followed because this matter is again in the public domain.
"In particular, I want to apologise to Sophie Hall. I do not believe her to be ugly or stupid. She has been brave beyond belief."
McCann continued: "Arthur Collins' crimes created genuine victims so I am not trying to portray myself as one.
"I am unable to say much because there are important and significant legal proceedings that prevent me from setting the record straight at this stage.
"What I can say is that the voice messages that are being released are manipulated; edited and taken entirely out of context.
"Even so, I will have said things that are untrue and I did not believe – but I did so to protect my family and myself from serious harm and in the face of significant threats."
The anonymous Instagram account leaked the voice notes allegedly sent by McCann, discussing Ms Hall.
She was one of 14 people who were injured by McCann’s ex Collins in the acid attack. He is currently serving 20 years in prison.
The user alleged McCann was the voice behind the voice note which said: “She’ll probably win it I’m not gonna lie. "Only because the event and the award she’s entered or beauty competition, whatever it is, they’re probably loving all this free press for their event.
“So they’ll probably fix it, she’ll win it. She is one ugly f***ing c***.”
Although, there is no suggestion that the competition was fixed, or that the organisers had interfered. Ms Hall didn’t win.
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