PHILLIP Schofield and Holly Willoughby have certainly put their stamp on This Morning over the years, having worked together on the breakfast show for over a decade.
However, Phillip originally co-hosted alongside TV veteran Fern Britton – with their bitter feud eventually leading to her shock exit.
The pair have been embroiled in a clash since appearing on the famous sofa together, with Phil joining the daytime show in 2002.
Fern caused shockwaves when she sensationally quit the programme seven years later – with it reported at the time that she’d “had enough of living in Phil’s shadow”.
During their tenure together, there were some good times – with Phil even coining a brutal but friendly nickname for his co-star through a crude in-joke.
He called the star “Minty M*nge” after she dropped a bottle of mint sauce on the floor, and it splattered onto her nightdress.
Phil affectionately referred to Fern as “Minty” live on air, and she would laugh along with the joke – suggesting that it hadn’t caused offence.
However, that wasn’t enough to salvage their relationship – and ITV’s love for Phil left her feeling “undervalued” by the broadcaster.
It was also claimed that she was being paid a staggering £250,000-a-year less than her co-star when they presented Mr and Mrs together, with Phil reportedly banking £45,000 an hour, and Fern £15,000.
However, she has denied that her decision to leave This Morning was related to salaries – insisting that she never discussed money with her colleague.
Four years after her exit, Phil confessed that they were no longer on speaking terms, telling Heat magazine in 2013: “We were involved in the show and mates at the time, but we don’t really. I see Phil [Fern’s then-husband, chef Phil Vickery] when he’s in This Morning… But we’re not in touch now.”
Fern said a similar thing at around the same time, telling MailOnline: “I always say Phillip and I had an indefinable chemistry which seemed to work well on-screen, she said. We ‘got’ each other.
“We enjoyed a laugh. And viewers seemed to warm to that. But, like Morecambe and Wise, we chose not to live in each other’s pockets. We were a great professional partnership but we never went on holiday together.”
In the same year, she missed This Morning’s 25th birthday celebrations – and was forced to deny rumours that she wasn’t invited due to her and Phil’s feud, insisting that she was busy.
In his recent autobiography, Phil opened up about what he believed to be the “final straw” in his and Fern’s working relationship as he recalled a blazing row they’d had in the This Morning make-up room back in 2009.
He admitted he was left “stunned” when she accused him of “meddling” with the content of the show, with Phil writing: “I walked back into the makeup room and calmly said, ‘Please don’t do that to me again.’
“I think, for whatever reason, that was the point Fern decided she didn’t want to do This Morning any more.”
He added that he’d tried to “make it right” between them in the years that followed, and “misses her deeply” after she moved on.
Fern’s former agent Jon Roseman appeared to confirm the roots of the story in an interview, saying of Phil: “From day one he began to interfere with the editorial content of the show.
“His stranglehold was too tight by the time she recognised what he was up to. Their ability to work together was up there with the Eamonn Holmes/Anthea Turner friction.
“He befriended Simon Shaps, the then boss of the network centre. After this friendship, all bets were off… He just got what he wanted.”
Fern and Phil had a frosty on-air reunion in 2018, which left it evident to all that there was no love lost between them.
She appeared on the show to celebrate its 30th birthday, but was cut from air – although show bosses insisted that this was a technical issue at the time.
When she returned, she claimed that she hadn’t been invited to This Morning’s BAFTA ceremony as she frostily congratulated Phil on the award.
She sniped: “That was absolutely wonderful and brilliant. I would have loved to have been there but I didn’t get an invitation.”
Phil denied this being the case, insisting she was working in Scotland at the time of the ceremony – but Fern hit back: “I wasn’t on Monday night, I would have come but I wasn’t invited.”
To rub salt in the wound, he made a jibe about her memory on Twitter shortly afterwards, telling followers: “Odd really, because she was invited and declined #memoryloss we’d have loved her to be there. A vital and much loved part of the show.”
In response, Fern retweeted somebody who asked Phil why he hadn’t assumed there was a “miscommunication”, with the star adding: “I had no invitation to decline.”
It was later revealed that her agents hadn’t given her the invitation because they believed she would be too busy.
In 2020, after Phil emotionally came out as gay in a live interview on This Morning, he was inundated with supportive messages from his fellow stars – but later revealed Fern wasn’t among the ones to contact him, although she did message his wife Steph.
Fern defended her actions at the time, explaining: “We haven’t seen each other for a very long time or spoken for a while. I’m glad for him. It’s none of my business.
“He’s getting on really, so, good. It’s terrible that people have to hide who they are.”
Sharing why she text Steph, she went on: “I feel for his wife. Steph’s a lovely girl and, you know, that’s difficult – as I’ve been talking about difficult transitions and processing stuff for me, it will be the same for her.”
