It’s been a hard 3 years losing my parents & my marriage but now the world is my oyster
SAYS FERN BRITTON
FERN Britton has told how she is starting a new chapter after a tough few years of loss and heartache.
The TV presenter and author has been adjusting to being alone after her 20-year marriage to TV chef Phil Vickery ended in January last year.
Their spilt came a month after the death of her dad, actor Tony Britton, and two years after the loss of mum Ruth.
Now the former This Morning host, who has daughter Winnie, 19, with Phil and three children from a previous marriage, is building a new life for herself on the Cornish coast.
She said: “I’m not afraid of change… The last three years have been very hard. I lost my parents, I lost my marriage. I lost my other home in Buckinghamshire, too, because Phil lives there now and I’m in Cornwall. “But the magic I’ve found here is incredible. I’ve made some wonderful girlfriends, that’s been a lovely surprise.” Fern has been on screen this month with Sir Ian Botham, Linford Christie, Les Dennis and Rosemary Shrager on a road trip for Channel Five show Fishing Scotland’s Lochs and Rivers.
She also is busy writing, with nine novels published and more on the way. On the challenges of being single, Fern told Good Housekeeping magazine: “Being wholly in charge of a situation and not having someone to discuss it with is a double-edged sword. I can say, ‘Let’s blow up the house and build something else,’ and SPLIT I don’t have to justify it, which is great.
“But it’s also a big decision – and I have to arrange everything myself.
“I’m not lonely but I’m in this transition period where I’m working out what’s next for me. My approach has always been: head down, keep going.
“And for the first time in my life, I’m thinking, ‘Where shall I go now?’ – and that’s quite nice. “Suddenly, the world is my oyster.” Asked what she has learned about happiness, she said: “Not to rely on anyone else for your happiness. “It comes from you thinking, ‘Yes, I’ve made mistakes. Yes, there are things that I’m sorry about doing. But actually, I’m all right. I’m not too bad.’”
■ Read the full interview with Fern Britton in the September issue of Good Housekeeping, out today