Fern Britton has stated that she has had no communication with former This Morning co-host Phillip Schofield.
Schofield, 62, resigned from ITV at the end of May after admitting to lying about a ‘unwise but not criminal’ romance with a considerably younger colleague.
Former This Morning hosts, workers, and guests spoke out about the ‘toxic climate’ on set, with many pointing the finger at Schofield himself.
It’s no secret that he and Fern, who previously co-hosted the show from 2002 to 2009, had a major falling out.
Despite the recent occurrences, Fern, 65, has stated that she and Schofield have never communicated.
‘We were involved in the show and mates at the time, but we don’t really [speak anymore],’ she told Good Housekeeping.
She added: ‘My time at This Morning was marvellous and I adored the 10 years I was there.’
‘I feel you should never look back. I don’t think I’d be able to turn the clock back; it wouldn’t work that way.’
Fern departed the show unexpectedly in 2009 after eight years of co-hosting it with Phillip, and it was later discovered that the two had been feuding for some time.
Phillip said in his memoir, Life is What You Make It, that their spat began over the substance of a This Morning broadcast.
He stated that ‘for whatever reason,’ that was ‘the point’ at which Fern decided she no longer wanted to work on the project.
Fern disclosed around the same time that she departed because she was “handled really terribly.”
‘Something happened and I thought, “That’s it really”, and I walked away and resigned,’ she recalled.
‘And after a while I just thought, “Sod it”,’ she told the Ray D’Arcy Show in 2020.
While Phillip stated he attempted to’make things right’ and that he missed Fern ‘deeply,’ they later had a fairly sour social media encounter after she claimed she was not invited to the show’s Bafta celebrating 30 years on screen.
He replied on Twitter: ‘Odd really, because she was invited and declined #memoryloss we’d have loved her to be there. A vital and much-loved part of the show.’
Fern appeared to weigh in on Schofield’s public disagreement with co-host Holly Willoughby, 42, when she shared on Twitter that she’d had a ‘catch up’ with ‘old chum’ Eamonn Holmes, who also had a public feud with Schofield.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.