Fern Britton: ‘Phil wouldn’t speak to me!’
Fern Britton’s This Morning comeback last week led to a shock revelation…
Her long-awaited return to This
Morning was eight years in the making – and Fern Britton certainly made an impact with an unexpected revelation.
The star enjoyed a glitzy send-off back in 2009 after a decade of presenting ITV’s flagship daytime show alongside TV ‘hubby’ Phillip Schofield. Later, rumours surfaced that she had been prompted to quit after discovering Phil earned three times more than her.
At the time, she dismissed this speculation as nonsense but, interestingly, her return coincided with Phil being on leave. Instead, Fern was interviewed by husband-andwife duo Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford.
The presenter was there to promote her new ITV daytime show, Culinary Genius –a cooking competition devised by chef Gordon Ramsay.
‘It’s Ready Steady Cook for the 21st century,’ Fern enthused. ‘Nine amateur chefs do a knife challenge, then we get rid of three of them – it’s vicious. After a butchery challenge, another three go. And the final three make something with the results of the butchery challenge.’
Fern insists she got on with potty-mouthed Ramsay like a house on fire. ‘He’s like a naughty little brother,’ she said. ‘There’s a lot of fruity chat that won’t make it into the show!’
Fern’s other recent TV outing was a religious broadcast filmed in Jerusalem and aired on Good Friday.
As a practising Christian, Fern was so moved by her experience in the holy city that she had a tattoo of a cross on her wrist to commemorate it.
‘It’s very discreet,’ she said, showing it to Ruth. ‘Pilgrims would have the tattoo done like a passport stamp.’
It’s not Fern’s first foray into the world of body art. When challenged to show Ruth the two butterflies she has inked above her hip, the 59-year-old mum-of-four obliged by turning away from the cameras and tugging down the waistband of her trousers.
She famously took the plunge at the age of 53 without telling her husband, chef Phil Vickery, 55.
When Fern had to call her unsuspecting hubby from the tattoo parlour to explain that she was running late to pick up the kids, he was less than impressed with the reason.
‘He wouldn’t speak to me after I did it,’ Fern confessed to Ruth. ‘He said, “I thought I knew you!”’
Happily, the couple now seem as devoted as ever. Fern revealed that working together on Culinary Genius – Phil is one of the judges, alongside Rosemary Shrager, JeanChristophe Novelli and Gordon Ramsay himself – gave their love life a boost.
‘It’s been like having a date,’ Fern says of being reunited in front of the cameras. ‘He’s being nice and charming, and I think, “Ooh, flirty boy!”’
Fern called her hubby from the tattoo parlour to explain why she was running late to pick up the kids…