Fern Britton's huge love life admission after Phil Vickery split: 'Terrifying'

Fern Britton is anxious about starting over in the love life department (Image: ITV)

Fern Britton has admitted that, despite feeling heartache after her split from celebrity chef Phil Vickery, becoming a single woman in later life felt "liberating".

Now the This Morning host turned bestselling author is unsure if she wants to return to a full-time relationship. Declaring that getting older is "not for the fainthearted", she explained: "I find the prospect of a new relationship [at this stage in life] terrifying as well as tempting.

"I imagine what it would be like to have someone to talk to and walk with. Someone with whom to share hobbies, hold hands and maybe… gulp… get intimate." The 67-year-old says she doesn't feel old, but that her body has been through undeniable changes in her seventh decade of life - more so than in any of the previous few decades.

"It's not just my body I'm worried about sharing with someone new; mostly it's my personal space," she continued. "What I would really like is a semi-detached relationship. One where we live in our own houses and not in each other's pockets."

She added to the Daily Mail: "You'd think it would have been tricky to slip back into single life after such a long time, but I have found it liberating." Now, after years of commitments, including giving birth to and raising daughter Winnie while in her 40s, and being a wife to two husbands over the space of 30 years, she's living life on her own terms.

Fern Britton and ex-husband Phil Vickery split in 2020 (Image: ITV)

She says she's enjoying choosing her own bedtimes now, whether that's a jaw-droppingly early 6:00 in the evening, or an unapologetically late 2:00 in the morning.

The ending of her 20 year relationship with Phil might have been upsetting, but it also gave her freedom from responsibilities and commitment - something she's valuing after so many years of playing a different role.

She referenced a day recently when she drove to the beach near her beautiful Cornwall home for no other reason than to "people-watch", and to check out the "handsome lifeguards".

Celebrity Big Brother 2023 star Fern has addressed the tricky topic of aging while navigating the single life and the prospect of new relationships in her latest book.

Fern Britton took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2012 (Image: ITV)

Although she's best known as a novellist, she's now authored an extraordinarily personal book, The Older I Get... Repowering My Life.

In it, she discusses the challenges of aging with "warm and humour" despite personal tragedies such as both of her parents dying and the break-up of a long relationship.

The synopsis of the book explains of her transitional stage in her 60s: "This wasn’t a moment of empowerment, for that would suggest she never had any power to begin with.

"As women, we often put our needs aside, and she feels strongly that it’s time for us to repower and rediscover our happiness.

"In The Older I Get, join Fern as she candidly shares her experiences of grief and loss, rebuilding confidence and exploring new passions, as well as the importance of finding friends you can put the world to rights with over a couple of Cosmos."