Fern Britton has claimed male bosses on ITV’s This Morning told her she would have to return to work straight after giving birth and threatened her with the sack if she didn’t.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast hosted by Kate Thornton, the TV star, 64, said after she gave birth to her youngest daughter Winnie at the age of 44 in 2001, an unnamed male producer told her to return to her presenting role two weeks later ‘or there’s no job for you.’
At the time Fern was the Friday host of the ITV show with John Leslie, but after a presenter crisis sparked by Richard and Judy’s departure, she was promoted to main presenter shortly after negotiating her return to work.
Friction: Fern Britton has claimed male bosses on ITV’s This Morning told her she would have to return to work straight after giving birth and threatened her with the sack if she didn’t (pictured with her daughter Winnie in March 2002)
Fern, a mother of four, said she explained to managers at ITV that at the age of 44 she couldn’t just ‘turn up’ so soon after having a baby.
But she claimed she was told by one male producer ‘my wife was driving after two weeks’ and warned that if she didn’t show up she would not have a job anymore.
Fern’s then-husband Phil Vickery, and father of Winnie, was also working on the ITV show as a chef at the time.
Speaking on the podcast, Fern said: ‘It was when Richard and Judy had left, I was pregnant, she [Winnie] was due in September and the show went off air as it used to for the summer and then my boss said ‘well you’ve got to come back’.
Mum: Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast hosted by Kate Thornton, the TV star, 64, said after she gave birth to her youngest daughter Winnie at the age of 44, an unnamed male proudcer told her to return to her presenting role two weeks later
Ex: Fern welcomed her fourth child, and her first with ex husband Phil Vickery in September 2001, but says she was told by bosses she had to return to her Friday presenting role within weeks of the birth
‘I said “well she’s going to be born in September and you go on air in September, I’m 44 I can’t just turn up”. And he said “if you don’t come then there’s no job for you”.’
Podcast host Kate Thornton said ‘it sounds like there wasn’t a huge amount of empathy’ for the presenter and asked her why she thought that was.
Fern was swift in her reply, telling her: ‘Because the programme bosses were men. I’m not a man-hater – I am a feminist – but I’m not a man-hater… But they were guys.
‘I said [to a producer] “well unfortunately, I’m 44, the other two pregnancies I had I had to have cesarean and I know that this baby is going to be born by cesarean so I know I won’t be able to do anything for the first six weeks anyway”.
Standing her ground: Fern, a mother of four, said she explained to managers at ITV that at the age of 44 she couldn’t just ‘turn up’ so soon after having a baby (pictured on This Morning in 2019)
‘[He said] “oh my wife was driving after two or three weeks”and I said “oh was she? How old was she?” She was like 30.’
Eventually – as This Morning was in a crisis after Richard and Judy left in 2001 – ITV bosses spoke to Fern and accommodated her return to work requests.
Britton explained how she told her boss she couldn’t return to work but after a few months ‘there was a bit of a disaster at This Morning and they didn’t have the right presenters’ so desperate bosses reached out to her.
At that time Richard and Judy had been replaced by Coleen Nolan and Twiggy, with Fern and John Leslie remaining on Fridays, but when Coleen and Twiggy proved less popular with viewers, Fern and John were promoted to main hosts, with Fern’s requests met by ITV.
ITV icon: Eventually – as This Morning was in a crisis after Richard and Judy left in 2001 – ITV bosses spoke to Fern and accommodated her return to work requests (pictured with co-presenter Phillip Schofield who took over from John Leslie in 2002)
Fern said she set out her conditions – that Winnie would go to work with her every day because she was feeding and ‘couldn’t be without her’ and that she needed someone to look after her child while she was on air.
ITV bosses accepted her terms and Britton said she had a ‘fun’ year taking Winnie to work.
A spokesperson for ITV told MailOnline: ‘ITV has clear policies and procedures in place to support all of our colleagues when it comes to flexible working. We pride ourselves on being a flexible and inclusive employer and listen to our colleagues and their needs.’
Earlier this week Fern put an end to her feud with former This Morning co-presenter Phillip Schofield as she appeared on Lorraine to congratulate him on his 40 years on television.
Fern co-hosted This Morning with Phil from 2002 to 2009 before the pair famously fell out ahead of her departure.
Moving on: Earlier this week Fern put an end to her feud with former This Morning co-presenter Phillip Schofield as she appeared on Lorraine to congratulate him on 40 years on TV
But, in a bid to bury the hatchet, Fern said in a recorded message this week: ‘Forty years is an incredible milestone and it’s time for you to stop and look back and see all that you have achieved and be proud of it.
‘So I’m wishing you a very happy future. Congratulations and keep going.’
Fern was half way through her £1.5 million contract with ITV when she handed in her notice in 2009 after seven years on This Morning with Phillip, who had replaced John Leslie in 2002.
It was claimed at the time she felt ‘undervalued by ITV’ and that she was ‘living in Phil’s shadow’.
It was also reported Fern was being paid £250,000 a year less than Phil and that he was earning three times her salary when they were fronting Mr and Mrs together from 2008 to 2010.
Phil is said to have banked £45,000 an hour while Fern earned just £15,000.
However, Fern denied she left ITV because of her salary and upon her departure she mentioned the whole This Morning team rather than just Phillip.
Four years after her departure, Phillip admitted he and Fern no longer spoke.
Grateful: Phil looked slightly taken aback at first as he watched Fern’s message but thanked her for her words
He told Heat magazine in 2013: ‘We were involved in the show and mates at the time, but we don’t really [speak]. I see Phil [Fern’s then-husband, chef Phil Vickery] when he’s in This Morning… But we’re not in touch now.’
In his autobiography Life Is What You Make It, the presenter wrote of the argument he had with Fern which ended their friendship.
The pair exchanged fraught words in their make-up room in 2009 over the content of the show and Phil said he was ‘stunned’ when she accused him of ‘meddling’.
He wrote: ‘I walked back into the make-up room and calmly said, “Please don’t do that to me again”.
‘I think, for whatever reason, that was the point Fern decided she didn’t want to do This Morning any more.’
Battle: The pair exchanged fraught words in their make-up room in 2009 over the content of the show and Phil said he was ‘stunned’ when she accused him of ‘meddling’ (pictured 2005)