Fern Britton says she is feeling ‘really relaxed’ following split from husband of 20 years

Britton announced in 2020 that she and celebrity chef Phil Vickery had split after two decades together

Fern Britton has said that she did not expect to feel “really relaxed” following the end of her 20-year-long marriage.

The 65-year-old former This Morning presenter has reflected on being single after she split from celebrity chef Phil Vickery in 2020.

Britton announced the break-up of her marriage to Vickery in January 2020, shortly after the death of her father, Don’t Wait Up actor Tony Britton, in December 2019.

Speaking to Good Housekeeping for the August 2023 issue, Britton that a new world has opened up for her.

“My children are grown-up and I’m no longer married, and it’s as if this whole other world has opened up,” she explained.

“I never thought this would happen; I didn’t expect to be 65 and single and really relaxed.”

Britton and Vickery had appeared on the show Ready Steady Cook and wed in 2000.

Announcing their split via social media in 2020, Britton said the couple had decided to go their “separate ways.”

Fern Britton appearing in Good Housekeeping’s August issue 2023 (Good Housekeeping / David Venni)

Discussing her wellbeing and fitness, the TV host said that a switch had been flipped a year ago when she grew a desire to get healthier.

“About a year or so ago, I realised that I wasn’t looking after myself – physically or mentally,” she said.

“I wasn’t doing exercise, I was eating too much and suddenly, it was like I flipped a switch and I thought, ‘No, you’ve got to look after yourself’.

“So I started doing that, and it’s given me a new sort of energy.

Britton added she had been doing yoga and the Couch to 5K running challenge.

“I’m very slow, I’ve got arthritis in one of my knees and I’m about to have a shoulder replacement, but I just thought, ‘it’s only three miles, come on!’

(Good Housekeeping / David Venni)

“I’m not intending to run a long marathon or beat anybody, but I do enjoy the fitness side of it.”

Britton is also known for presenting the ITV breakfast programme This Morning, which she left in 2009.

Discussing the possibility of making a return, she said: “I don’t think I’d be able to turn the clock back; it wouldn’t work that way.

“My time at This Morning was marvellous and I adored the 10 years I was there, but I feel you should never look back.”

Read the full interview with Fern Britton in the August 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping here.

With additional reporting from PA.