Fern Britton has admitted that she has “mixed emotions” when reflecting on her time working with Phillip Schofield on This Morning.
The 67-year-old presenter co-hosted the popular ITV daytime show with Schofield between 2002 and 2009, having worked on the series as a guest presenter since 1993, then as a full-time host from 1999.
After quitting the show in 2009, and being subsequently replaced by Holly Willoughby, it was claimed that Britton had clashed with Schofield, with the latter revealing in his 2012 memoir Life Is What You Make It that Britton once accused him of “meddling” with the daytime show’s content, forcing him to “calmly” tell her: “Please don’t do that to me again.”
In a new interview with Saga, Britton was asked about Schofield’s much-publicised departure from This Morning in 2023. “It brought up a lot of mixed emotions,” said Britton. “The years we worked together were mostly great fun and we were a very good partnership, which I can remember with fondness.”
"I knew how much he loved his job and cared deeply for his public perception,” she added. “It must have been a terribly difficult time for him and his family.”
When Britton quit the show, she released a statement addressing the show’s team in general but did not specifically name Schofield.
Schofield also claimed in his book that their previous row “was the point she decided she didn’t want” to be on the show any more.
In 2013, Schofield told Heat that he and Britton are “not really” in touch any more, with Britton telling the Daily Mail: “Like Morecambe and Wise, we chose not to live in each other’s pockets. We were a great professional partnership but we never went on holiday together.”
Rumours of a rivalry between the pair resurfaced when, during This Morning’s 30th anniversary episode in 2018, the latter claimed she wasn’t invited to a ceremony honouring the series.
“Congrats on the Bafta,” she said, adding: “That was absolutely wonderful and brilliant. I would have loved to have been there but I didn’t get an invitation.”
When Schofield pointed out that she was on stage in Scotland at the time of the event, Britton replied: “I wasn’t on Monday night – I would have come but I wasn’t invited.” Schofield told his social media followers that Britton had “memory loss” and would have been welcome to attend.
Schofield, 63, quit ITV entirely in 2023 after admitting that he lied to the broadcaster, his colleagues, his lawyers and his agent over the nature of his relationship with a much younger male colleague.
In a statement, Schofield said he had an “unwise” but “not illegal” relationship with a colleague who worked on This Morning.
An ITV spokesperson said the channel felt “badly let down” by Schofield and accepted his resignation. Meanwhile, Willoughby said it had been “very hurtful” to learn he lied to her, after she apparently asked him directly about rumours of his affair being true. She would also quit the show in October 2023.
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