‘Your heart sinks’: Fern Britton shares the ‘worst’ thing she experienced in her marriage

Fern Britton has recently opened up about the "brutal" nature of her four children leaving home and the empty nest they left behind.

Now, she's offered a look at the most memorable good and bad times throughout her life during a candid interview, and shared the "worst" moment from being married.

The 68-year-old was married to TV executive Clive Jones from 1988-1998. She later married celebrity chef Phil Vickery after meeting on the set of Ready Steady Cook - the couple married in 2000 before announcing their separation in 2020.

The statement announcing their split read: "After more than 20 happy years together, Phil and I have decided to go our separate ways. We will always share a great friendship and our lovely children."

Fern shares twin sons Jack and Harry, 31, and daughter Grace, 28, with Clive Jones, and daughter Winnie, 23, with Phil Vickery.

However, it appears some of of the memorable bad days from her time being married loom large for the presenter. When asked by The Telegraph to reveal the "worst" thing about marriage, her response is quite visceral.

"That moment when you hear the key in the lock and your heart sinks because things haven’t been going well," she says, adding that she'd hear the key and wonder, "What’s the mood? What’s the temperature?"

Although she doesn't state which marriage she's referring to, the presenter says she'd be left with a feeling of "here we go again" when her husband came home.

Speaking to Yours about her marriage breakdown recently, Fern shares, "There comes a point when the children are substantially off your hands and you look at each other and wonder where you’re going to go from here."

She continues, "We didn’t hit a brick wall. It’s just that we both said out loud what we were feeling – and that was it," as she sadly reveals the couple haven't spoken in "six years" after Phil "stopped talking" to the presenter after her mother died.

Fern is now happily single and living in Cornwall. "I’m not even looking. Nor is there a queue of suitors at the door, which I find liberating," she says.

Speaking about what she loves most about living in the county, Fern shares, "Being there, the whole experience. I just love it."

"It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning. I can hear the sea on a quiet day. There’s nothing to beat the smell of spring, the hedgerows full of cow parsley and pink campion."

"I was running up the lane the other day and I saw a Jenny wren, so beautiful, so tiny, singing in a tree and then following me as I continued to run."