Fern Britton has hit out at ex-husband Phil Vickery for the brutal way he allegedly cut contact with her.
The 65-year-old former This Morning presenter split from celebrity chef Vickery in 2020, after more than two decades together. The pair share a 22-year-old daughter called Winnie.
Britton announced the break-up of her marriage shortly after the death of her parents, with Britton’s father, Don’t Wait Up actor Tony Britton, having died in December 2019.
A former Celebrity Big Brother contestant who previously said she enjoys being “her own boss”, Britton has now reflected on the aftermath of her split, which saw her and Vickery maintain a “basic” amount of contact.
According to Britton, Vickery cut contact with her outright after the death of her mother in 2020. She said in a new interview with Yours magazine: “He hasn’t spoken to me for six years now. As soon as my mum died, he stopped talking to me.”
Britton said she tries not to speak negatively about Vickery on account of Winnie, who “adores him”.
“I’m not going to bad-mouth him in front of her – at least, I try very hard not to,” she said, adding: “I was the child of divorced parents and my mum never bad-mouthed my father.”
Britton and Vickery, who married in 2000, appeared together on the show Ready Steady Cook.
The host previously celebrated being single, telling ITV series Saturday Kitchen: “I can sit down in the morning and watch all the daytime television I like. No one’s going to judge me for it, I don’t have to get dressed up and made up.
“I am my own boss now, which is great, in every sense, my life, my work, everything. I’m my own boss and I’m enjoying that.”
She also opened up about her dating life on Morning Live, saying: “When you were younger, everything was fun. It was proper stuff – now it’s all swiping, and I hate it, and I’m not going to do that.”
She added: “It was such a fun time going to parties, and you were excited to meet strangers. I don’t want to meet strangers anymore, I don’t want to be invited to huge parties.”
Speaking to Good Housekeeping in 2023, Britton revealed that many new opportunities have opened up for her post-divorce.
“My children are grown-up and I’m no longer married, and it’s as if this whole other world has opened up,” she said. “I never thought this would happen; I didn’t expect to be 65 and single and really relaxed.”
