Fern Britton says ‘this was not how it’s meant to be’ in admission about ex Phil Vickery

Fern Britton confessed she thought “this was not how it’s meant to be” after her marriage to second husband Phil Vickery broke down.

Former star met celebrity chef Phil when she was appearing on Ready Steady Cook. The pair married in 2000, but went their separate ways after two decades together.

It left Fern, then aged 63, to “run away” to the couple’s holiday home in Cornwall. Mum-of-four Fern says she remembers the house being “welcoming” when she first pulled up after leaving Phil.

The property, she says, gave her a “hug of security” and a “sense of peace”. In her autobiography, The Older I get, Fern writes: “There were so many happy memories around every corner. The children dashing in with sandy feet, surfboards piled up outside the front door.

“The empty packets of crisps and tins of Coke strewn around bedrooms, kitchen and lounge. Happy bronzed and freckled faces of children who were bickering but carefree.”

And while the property offered a sense of warmth to Fern, she couldn’t help but think she expected her second marriage to end differently to her first. The star had been married to TV executive Clive Jones for 12 years before Phil.

Her relationship with Phil however had “started the race so well”. And while Fern hoped it would be a case of “until death do us part,” she admits the relationship had faded.

She continued: “And now, here I was, single, looking at a very different future to the one I had imagined. This was not how it was meant to be.

“I had always thought that my husband and I would make it our permanent home. A place to share, together, once the children had left school. Now a new chapter was starting and for the first time in my life I couldn’t be sure of what my future held.”

Fern admits it wasn’t the “first time” she felt as though she had to rebuild her life. She remarked on her career change, from television presenter to fiction writer, and her previous marriage.

The 67-year-old however admits she had a “profound sense of failure” following the relationship breakdown. Since splitting with Phil, Fern has kept her private life out of the spotlight.

And, despite being in her sixties, Fern has shown no signs of slowing down, appearing on Celebrity Big Brother last year. Since becoming a novelist in 2011, she has penned nine books.