Fern Britton, the beloved TV presenter and former This Morning host, has revealed a harrowing chapter from her early broadcasting career—claiming she was “decimated” by BBC Breakfast editors who berated her mid-show, locked her in an office, and left her in tears.
Speaking candidly on the Full Disclosure podcast with James O’Brien, 68-year-old Fern recounted the traumatic experience that marked her time on the breakfast television programme, then known as Breakfast Time. She described a moment when a senior editor stormed through the studio, telling her bluntly, “You are terrible, you are awful,” before demanding she carry on for another hour live on air.
“After the show, he called me into his office, locked the door, and with his deputy editor, just shredded me. I cried and cried and cried,” Fern admitted. “It was a Friday, and he said, ‘You’re not leaving until you put some make-up on.’ I had to do it in front of him. What he did was really bad. It really decimated me.”
Fern Britton has claimed a BBC Breakfast editor once locked her in an office with another boss to berate her after telling her she was ‘awful’ midway through a show
Fern, part of the original presenting team at BBC Breakfast in the early 1980s, worked alongside broadcasting legends including Frank Bough and Selina Scott. Reflecting on those formative years, she revealed the shocking culture she encountered:
“When I first met Frank, he leaned back and said, ‘Well, I wonder how long it will be before I’m having an affair with you? Because I do have a very big c**k.’ That was the way it was. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s how it was.”
Fern pictured (right) beside Frank Bough her co-host on BBC Breakfast (pictured Debbie Rix, Francis Wilson, Selina Scott, Frank Bough, Mike Smith, Fern Britton)
Her co-presenter Selina Scott, she added, also struggled under Bough’s scrutiny, with Fern recalling incidents of unprofessional comments during live shoots.
After her tenure at the BBC, Fern moved to ITV, becoming a household name as the host of This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield. However, even there, her departure in 2009 was tinged with tension. She later admitted feeling “undervalued” and “living in Phil’s shadow,” culminating in a public fallout. Despite their estrangement, Fern has reflected fondly on their years together, calling their partnership “mostly great fun.”
Since leaving daytime television, Fern has reinvented herself both personally and professionally. She has become a bestselling author, returned to TV on shows like Celebrity Big Brother, and openly shared her journey through life after her 20-year marriage to TV chef Phil Vickery ended.
“It’s as if this whole other world has opened up. I never thought I’d be 65 and single and really relaxed,” she told Good Housekeeping in 2023.
