The former friends and This Morning co-stars haven’t seen eye to eye since Fern quit the ITV Daytime programme in 2009.
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In an interview with the Mail’s Weekend magazine conducted before she entered the CBB house, Fern was asked if it was her decision to leave the show.
She said: “To leave This Morning? Ultimately, yes. I loved it and I would probably still be there if?”
After pausing, she continued: “Phillip and I were not getting on very well at that stage.”
Pressed if the pair had spoken in the years since, she responded: “I haven’t spoken to him, no.”
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Without naming Schofield she also took a swipe at power-craving male co-stars.
She said: “Lots of the men you work with are much more fussed about their piece to camera and how many words they’ve got than they are about you.”
Proving there is no love lost, Fern told her CBB co-star Gary Goldsmith days ago that she’d quit the programme if Phillip made a guest appearance.
Fern first stepped onto the This Morning set in 1993, when she was drafted in as a guest host.
In 1999, she was given the job full-time and began her stint alongside John Leslie. Phillip took over from him in 2002.
Fern quit the show in 2009 amid reports of tension between her and Phillip and was replaced by Holly Willoughby.
Holly and Phillip formed a formidable partnership and were inseparable on and off screen until his affair scandal with a younger male colleague destroyed their friendship.
In 2020 Fern relocated permanently to Cornwall after splitting from This Morning chef Phil Vickery following a 20-year marriage.
Opening up about her decision to take part in CBB, she said: “I said yes because I could do with an adventure and that was it.
“Here I am, 67 in the summer and still looking forward to an adventure and everybody who’s approaching 60 or is around this age, you can so easily lose confidence.”
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Celebrity Big Brother line-up
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