Fern Britton has made a shocking accusation about This Morning, claiming that she was told to either come back to work two weeks after giving birth or face the sack from the ITV show.
The incident allegedly happened back in 2001, when Fern gave birth to her youngest daughter, Winnie.
Fern Britton’s shocking accusation about bosses on ITV’s This Morning
Fern’s comments about This Morning came during an appearance on the White Wine Question Time podcast.
Speaking to host Kate Thornton, Fern alleged that an unnamed male boss threatened her with the sack if she didn’t return to work straight after giving birth.
The incident allegedly happened back in 2001 when Fern was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Winnie.
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The then 44-year-old hosted the Friday shows with John Leslie at the time.
However, she was swiftly promoted to a main presenting role after the departure of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
Fern said that she tried to explain to bosses that she couldn’t just return straight to work after giving birth.
However, according to her, ITV bosses were having none of it.
ITV’s alleged response to Fern Britton
Fern went into more detail about the incident during her conversation with Kate.
“It was when Richard and Judy had left,” she said. “I was pregnant, she [Winnie] was due in September and the show went off-air as it used to for the summer and then my boss said, ‘Well you’ve got to come back’.
“I said, ‘Well she’s going to be born in September and you go on air in September, I’m 44, I can’t just turn up’,” she explained. “And he said, ‘If you don’t come then there’s no job for you.'”
Kate said that it didn’t sound like there was a lot of “empathy” for Fern. She then asked Fern why she thought this was.
Fern was quick to reply, saying: “Because the programme bosses were men.”
She continued, saying: “I’m not a man-hater – I am a feminist – but I’m not a man-hater… But they were guys.”
Fern then went on to tell Kate what she said to the producer who threatened her job.
“I said. ‘Well, unfortunately, I’m 44, the other two pregnancies I had I had to have cesarean and I know that this baby is going to be born by cesarean so I know I won’t be able to do anything for the first six weeks anyway.'”
She then said that the producer had challenged her on this, claiming that his wife had been driving two or three weeks after giving birth.
“I said ‘oh, was she? How old was she?’ She was like 30,” she said.
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Fern continued that eventually the issues were sorted and ITV agreed to certain terms she set out to accommodate her on her return to work.
She explained that one of her conditions would be that Winnie could go in to work with her every day as she “couldn’t be without her”. ITV agreed to this, and Fern had a “fun year” of taking Winnie to work with her.
Fern eventually left This Morning in 2009 after a reported falling out with her co-star Phillip Schofield.
ED! has contacted reps for ITV for comment.
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