Fern Britton opened up on what she faced (Image: Instagram)
Fern Britton has disclosed the real reason behind her departure from the BBC’s flagship breakfast programme after being “decimated” and branded “terrible” midway through a day of broadcasting. Fern, 68, was a familiar face as co-host on BBC Breakfast Time — which later became BBC Breakfast — appearing between September 1983 and 1986.
She has now lifted the lid on why she chose to leave and pursue fresh opportunities elsewhere. “I left because I was very unhappy there. The editor hated me, Frank hated me. It was made very, very difficult for me,” she confessed. The presenter made this revelation during an interview with James O’Brien on his Full Disclosure podcast. She described one particular incident that ultimately prompted her exit, when the show’s editor told her she was “terrible”. “There was one morning when the editor walked in at 8 o’clock sort of halfway through the morning and he came through the forest of cameras and he said to me: ‘You are terrible, you are awful, now sit down there and do another hour’,” reports the Mirror.
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Fern Britton shared why she really left (Image: Instagram)
“After the show, he called me into his office and locked it, he was in there with his deputy editor and they just shredded me and I cried and cried and cried.”
She went on to explain that she was then instructed to compose herself before leaving the office, and compelled to apply makeup before being allowed to depart.
“It was a Friday and he said you’re not leaving this office until you put some make-up on. I said ‘It’s in the bag, on the desk’ and he went and he got my bag and I had to put my make-up on in front of him.”
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James asked: “Because he didn’t want everyone to know you’d been crying?”
To this, Fern concluded: “What he did was really bad, it really decimated me.”
The clip of Fern’s candid admission was shared across social media, drawing a wave of support from her fans. Supernanny Jo Frost commented: “Abuse! Misogynistic behaviour.”
“Absolutely despicable behaviour, you were great and so personable,” said another commenter. “I thought @fernbritton was lovely and such a great presence on TV,” said another.
Fern also graced the This Morning sofa for a full decade from 1999 until her departure in 2009. She became a cornerstone of the programme, presenting alongside John Leslie from 1999 until 2002, before being paired with Phillip Schofield from 2002 until she departed.
The television personality made a sudden exit from the show after ten years, later revealing that she had also been ‘treated poorly’ in that workplace. Speaking on the Ray D’Arcy Show in 2020, she said: “Something happened and I thought, ‘That’s it really’ and I walked away and resigned. I was treated pretty poorly, actually. And after a while I just thought ‘Sod it’.”
