How Phil Vickery and Fern Britton grew so far apart: ALISON BOSHOFF 明らかにする／漏らすs how he hated her tattoo and 偽の tan while she had a 中央の-life 'repowering' and now hungers for adventure

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Thanks?to her stint on the sofa at This Morning, Fern Britton, 62, remains 大いに loved as a reassuringly '安全な', mumsy 人物／姿／数字.

At the centre of her life was her marriage to Phil Vickery, the television chef who swept her off her feet.

When the couple got together in 1999 ― she a 離婚d, fortysomething mother of three young children, he a handsome bachelor four years her junior ― she couldn't believe her luck.?

Some friends believe the 分裂（する） has been timed so Fern and Phil don't have to go through a '勇敢に立ち向かう 直面する' 20th 周年記念日 party. Others 示唆する the couple had hung on to see their daughter through to adulthood

While she wasn't sure Phil would want to commit, she couldn't have been more wrong.

He told her: '井戸／弁護士席, it's a recipe, isn't it? Just 追加する wat er: instant family. If I want you ― and I do ― I get the 残り／休憩（する）.'

When I interviewed Fern after their wedding the に引き続いて year, she wept as she told me how blessed she felt to be with Phil, her knight in 向こうずねing chef's whites.?

'He is my life's 広大な／多数の／重要な love, a really amazing husband, partner, friend.'

Small wonder, then, that her fans have been left bewildered by the couple's 告示 ― 経由で synchronised tweets ― that they are to separate after nearly 20 years of marriage.

Fern has said in interviews that she and Phil, 58, have had 'humdinger' arguments over a 範囲 of 問題／発行するs, not least a late-life tattoo she had 署名／調印するd on her 手渡す two years ago after a 'spir itual awakening'. 'He'll get over it,' she said with a shrug

In a 声明 on Twitter, Fern said: 'After more than 20 happy years together, Phil and I have decided to go our separate ways. We will always 株 a 広大な／多数の／重要な friendship and our lovely children.'

Behind the scenes, though, their friends are いっそう少なく surprised.

A TV source said yesterday: 'I have seen Fern and Phil together and have never seen that fun chemistry they used to have on 審査する.

'Fern has 完全に changed. She has become very assertive and it has been obvious from 存在 around Phil that he is very 苦痛d and 緊張するd under it all.'

One thing is （疑いを）晴らす. Fern is a darker and more コンビナート／複合体 人物／姿／数字 than her cosy television persona 示唆するs. Her struggles with 不景気 are 井戸／弁護士席 known but as she entered her 60s it seems その上の turbulence followed.

Her beloved mother Ruth, who raised her alone after Fern's actor father Tony Britton left when she was a baby, died in 2018, leaving her daughter 'bonkers' with grief.

Her father died a month ago.

Fern also nearly died herself after 契約ing sepsis after an 操作／手術 for fibroids in 2016.

And, perhaps most 本気で for the marriage, she experienced a 're-力／強力にするing' as her nest emptied of growing children.

Fern says she has been discovering the woman she was before the 責任／義務s of family life took over.?

With youngest daughter Winnie now 18, she is looking to a 未来 that she feels happier 直面するing 単独の.

'I'm at a point in my life where if I want to grow a moustache and 耐えるd, I will,' Fern told Prima magazine in 2018.

One passion she discovered was for bike riding. Phil was in the habit of 解任するing her epic girls-only cycling trips for charity as 'holidays' but 現実に she was discovering herself.

In one interview after such an adventure, she 公式文書，認めるd: 'It was life-changing for all of us. One girl went home and 離婚d her husband!'

産業 insiders believe the seeds of Fern's steelier persona were sown at the time of her 出発 in 2009 from ITV's 旗艦 breakfast programme, This Morning.

A TV source said yesterday: 'After leaving the show, she became another personality and everyone noticed. Also, it was weird to everyone that Phil stayed on This Morning when her leaving had been so acrimonious. Nobody ever understood that.'

Fern is pictured above with first husband Clive Jones.?Fern had 分裂（する） from TV (n)役員／(a)執行力のある Clive Jones when their third child, daughter Grace, was only five months old. At the time, they also had three-year-old twin boys, born through IVF when Fern was 37

There was astonishment when Fern 'retired' from This Morning ― at the time she was one of the best-paid and most-loved women on television, 収入 £750,000 a year.

She said she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to spend more time with her four young children and 追求する other 利益／興味s.

Behind-the-scenes sources 主張する she had fallen out 不正に with her co-presenter Phillip Schofield, whom she 設立する 'unbearable'. He was 存在 paid £2 million a year.

A source said: 'It was terribly sad. On that final day they played clips of her and Phillip laughing and joking and by that point they were not speaking.

'She was furious with him and with ITV, she felt she was 存在 押し進めるd out. She was tremendously angry.'

Speaking to Hello! magazine last year, Fern 主張するd she 簡単に felt that it was time to call it a day: 'I did ten years of it and I loved that show ― I can't tell you how much I loved it. But after ten years I just felt it was 権利 to stop.'

Now, it seems, after nearly 20 years, the same thing has happened to her marriage.

Some friends believe the 分裂（する） has been timed so Fern and Phil don't have to go through a '勇敢に立ち向かう 直面する' 20th 周年記念日 party. Others 示唆する the couple had hung on to see their daughter through to adulthood.

There have been 手がかり（を与える）s that all was not 井戸／弁護士席 for a while.

Fern has said in interviews that she and Phil, 58, have had 'humdinger' arguments over a 範囲 of 問題／発行するs, not least a late-life tattoo she had 署名／調印するd on her 手渡す two years ago after a 'spiritual awakening'. 'He'll get over it,' she said with a shrug.

There was astonishment when Fern 'retired' from This Morning ― at the time she was one of the best-paid and most-loved women on television, 収入 £750,000 a year.?Behind-the-scenes sources 主張する she had fallen out 不正に with her co-presenter Phillip Schofield, whom she 設立する 'unbearable'

She was 類似して insouciant when she had spray tans to appear on 厳密に in 2012 and Phil was so '極度の慎重さを要する' to the smell that he retired to a spare room for the duration, after a terrible 列／漕ぐ／騒動. 'We didn't speak for four days,' she said.

It was also 公式文書，認めるd that he didn't once come to the studio to 元気づける for her during her six-week stint on the show. There were rumours of an 差し迫った 分離 even then.

Former スパイ／執行官 Jon Roseman, who looked after Fern's career during her golden years at This Morning, said yesterday: 'I 持つ／拘留する Phil in the greatest affection and he was always very 充てるd to her.

'I remember we once met up for a drink to talk about Fern's 負わせる, as there were rumours that This Morning weren't happy about it and he was really 関心d.'

Fern, who went on to lose five 石／投石する, became embroiled in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 over her 負わせる when she failed to 公表する／暴露する that her slimmer 人物／姿／数字 was 予定 in large part to a gastric 禁止（する）d she'd had fitted in 2006.

She only 認める to the 禁止（する）d two years after it was put in place, 最初 持続するing she had shed the 続けざまに猛撃するs by eating more healthily and cycling to work.

However, Jon Roseman remembers them as a の近くに-knit family. 'They spent a lot of time as a couple and a family,' he said. 'When I'd go over for dinner it would tend to just be the two of them.

'She was very の近くに to her mum but mostly it was her and Phil and the kids and that seemed to be it. It's sad when people run out of steam after so many years.'

The romance started with 花火s on the 始める，決める of Ready 安定した Cook. Fern had 分裂（する） from TV (n)役員／(a)執行力のある Clive Jones when their third child, daughter Grace, was only five months old. At the time, they also had three-year-old twin boys, born through IVF when Fern was 37.

She had been 苦しむing from terrible 不景気 and had suicidal thoughts.?

'I remember very 明確に when they were all little and sitting around the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, all shiny-直面するd and having their supper, and I'd think: '権利, you've got everything you want. Lo vely! Now I'm just going to pop upstairs and kill myself'.'

She said of 会合 Phil: 'The boys were four; Grace hadn't even started toddling. I remember thinking at the time that nobody was going to take a fortysomething woman with three kids.

'Then, one day at work, someone said 'Phil Vickery fancies you'. And I went, 'Remind me. Which one is he?'

'結局, I kidnapped him, put him and his dirty washing ― he was 選び出す／独身 at the time ― in my car and drove him home. The next day, he baked me his irresistible gooseberry 崩壊する.'

They were married in May 2000 at a 登録（する） office in High Wycombe, すぐに after her 離婚 from Clive Jones （機の）カム through.?

Their 証言，証人／目撃するs were plucked from the street and no 親族s, friends or photographers were in sight.

Phil said: 'We planned it a long time ago but hadn't 始める，決める a date. Yesterday it just felt 権利, so we went out and did it.'

Their daughter Winnie was born the に引き続いて year.

The couple appeared together 定期的に on This Morning, which Fern 前線d for a １０年間 from 1999 and Phil joined as chef in 2006.

After This Morning, her professional life changed 完全に. There were a few 外見s as a guest or stand-in host. She 現在のd Fern Britton 会合，会うs, an interview show, from 2009 to 2017.

There were hopes that a turn on 厳密に Come Dancing in 2012 might help her to be 見解（をとる）d in a いっそう少なく 'mumsy' light.

The fact that Fern wore her wedding （犯罪の）一味 only once, for her first cha-cha-cha, fuelled 憶測.

What were their 問題／発行するs? 井戸／弁護士席, Phil has said that he is averse to 衝突, an 'obedient person who is very good at 存在 told what to do'.?

He 追加するd: 'I said at the beginning of our 関係 that I didn't want to argue ― I can't be bothered with that.

'We both had an 協定 at the start that we wouldn't 列／漕ぐ／騒動, that we would always discuss our 関心s, and I've kept my part of the 取引.' But Fern 設立する such 合意 'boring.'?

She spoke blit hely of 'humdinger' arguments, 追加するing: 'But then we're normal. That's good for the children to see ― this is a real 関係.

Fern says she has been discovering the woman she was before the 責任／義務s of family life took over. With youngest daughter Winnie now 18, she is looking to a 未来 that she feels happier 直面するing 単独の. She is pictured above with Phil

'You hear people say: 'Thirty years and not a cross word.' Sorry, I 簡単に don't believe that. But if it is true, how boring.'

In the years that followed, Fern built a successful second career as a writer of chick-lit novels 始める，決める in Cornwall.

She popped up on TV from time to time to 促進する her 調書をとる／予約するs and also 小旅行するd in the musical 生産／産物 of Calendar Girls, which led to long 分離s.

Fern 主張するd last year that it didn't 事柄 if they were apart for months on end.

'He has always been my best friend and he always says I'm his best friend, too, which is amazing,' she said, 追加するing: 'Sex is 広大な／多数の／重要な but a cup of tea is 広大な／多数の／重要な, too. There's nothing nicer than getting into bed with a cuppa.

'Lust is 広大な／多数の／重要な, but when you really love someone and you 信用 each other, and you're in bed together drinking tea and chatting, that is a true 関係.'

However, in truth, their paths had for some time been diverging やめる radically.

Phil continued on This Morning, 令状ing cookbooks and going to festivals, tending to his pigs and his orchard at their house in Buckinghamshire.?

Fern said: 'We have let each other have our freedom. He's a man who has always got to 会合，会う a man about a dog. He says 'I'll be half an hour'. That might be a couple of days. We don't （人が）群がる each other and we are happy with that.'

Fern had started a health kick. She cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End for charity, which made her feel 'invincible'.

She said: 'Age has given me 信用／信任. I feel more carefree, I suppose. Also, I'm 井戸／弁護士席 and incredibly fit because 演習, cycling and 負わせる-training is part of my life and has been for the last ten years.

'Everyone says it's 重要な in helping to 区 off 不景気, and it's really helped me a lot.'

Her 不景気 meant that she felt 'somewhere under the medium line all the time'. She had therapy once a week and was on antidepressants for many years.

She felt the illness might have its roots in her father leaving the family when she was young.

The death of her mother, 老年の 94, was a 激しい blow. She said last year: 'The grief 攻撃する，衝突する me the day her ashes were scattered.?

As soon as it was over, I thought, 'I just want to sit and drink gin and go to bed,' and that's what I did. I did some bonkers things in the 即座の 影響.

'I 調書をとる／予約するd a 巡航する on the Queen Mary 2, on my own. I cried a lot in those two weeks but I also wrote a lot, and I 設立する that very soothing.'

In an interview last year, she said she was at last feeling 解放するd and happy. 'I talk to a lot of my friends who are in their 50s and 早期に 60s, and we're all feeling the same.

'The children are getting sorted and we can stop 存在 やめる so responsible as adults.'

No 事柄 where the next 一時期／支部 of life will take her, Fern seems to be 始める，決める on doing it 単独の.