Fern Britton has stated that she would ‘leave’ Celebrity Big Brother if Philip Schofield entered the house.
The 66-year-old former TV star was speaking with Kate Middleton’s uncle, Gary Goldsmith, about the turbulent year on ITV’s This Morning.
In the last year, long-time hosts Holly Willoughby and Schofield have both left the show, leaving the high-profile This Morning seats vacant. Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley will be their replacements.
Schofield, 61, abruptly left the show in May after admitting to lying about having an affair with a younger co-host.
Months later, Willoughby left the show after an alleged kidnapping plot against her was exposed. She returned to the channel to host Dancing On Ice, but will not be back for This Morning.
Fern, who hosted the show from 2002 to 2009, said she couldn’t comment on recent events, but that if Schofield entered the house, she’d leave through the other door.
‘I got off the train and its way over the horizon now so I honestly don’t know,’ she said, when asked by Goldsmith what she thought of the recent changes to the show.
Goldsmith, who also admitted to thinking Boris Johnson did a ‘good job’ as Prime Minister and that the world is a’safer place’ with Donald Trump, then told Britton that Schofield was rumoured to be entering the Big Brother house.
‘I might have to leave at that point,’ Fern replied.
She added that the new presenting team of Shephard and Deeley marks a ‘new era’ for the show.
The former presenter admitted that working on This Morning was ‘tricky at times’, but she believes it is an institution that ‘rocks but gets back together again’.
Fern hosted the ITV breakfast programme alongside Schofield and was replaced by Willoughby when she left abruptly in 2009, and it was later revealed there had been some tension between the two for some time.
When leaving the show, Britton failed to give any mention to her co-host.
Schofield later claimed in his autobiography that the pair had an intense fallout which led to their relationship ‘turning sour’.
Before Fern entered the house, a source told The Sun: ‘She wants to show the public a different side to her – unscripted and unapologetic.’
‘She has a lot of stories to tell, and she won’t hold back when it comes to her relationships with people like Phil.
‘They don’t speak anymore so there are no bridges to burn as far as she is concerned.’
Celebrity Big Brother airs on ITV1 at 9pm.
Source My Celebrity Life.