Fern Britton made headlines this week after one of her old interviews about her time on Strictly Come Dancing resurfaced.
Taking to her social media accounts on Friday, the former This Morning host shared a series of photos with her rarely-seen daughters Grace Jones and Winnie and a group of friends as she marked her 67th birthday this week.
© S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock"Two daughters, two friends, two days of fun," she wrote on Instagram, adding on X: "Birthday spread over two days hence costume change ice creams in Looe and crossing the river on the ferry. I always wanted to be the Ferry Boatman since I was 4. A dream unfulfilled. What might have been…"
The TV star-turned-author shares 22-year-old Winnie with ex-husband Phil Vickery and 27-year-old Grace - along with twin sons Harry and Jack, both 30 - with her former husband Clive Jones.
The birthday celebration comes as Fern - who appeared on Strictly back in 2012 alongside professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev - found herself back in the news when an old interview about her time on the show resurfaced.
She had been open about the strict dance regime in which she claimed that Artem would "just kick or shove" her during rehearsals.
The resurfaced comments come after both Giovanni Pernice and Graziano di Prima were fired from the BBC show due to reports of inappropriate behaviour in the training room.
Speaking at an event for The Times newspaper, Fern explained: "He would look at my feet and just kick me or shove me." Fern added that he would say: "'You just stand there and don’t move, I dance round you.’ He was like, 'Shut your face. Go home before I kill you.' I would say, 'Oh please just kill me, it would be easier.'
© Tony Woolliscroft"Or what was his other one? If you go for a cup of tea now, I will blow off like an atomic bomb.' I thought, well I won’t correct him on that one."
The former presenter continued: "We did love each other for a moment or two but he wasn’t charm personified… I did kind of enjoy it but it was grim at the same time."
At the time, Artem responded to her claims, telling the Daily Express: "I believe I treated Fern with respect and genuine care and these claims about me are the opposite of everything I believe in and the person I am. I cannot imagine what has prompted such statements which come as a shock to me."
Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far
- 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
- 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett)
- 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova)
- 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy)
- 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler)
- 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup)
- 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan)
- 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev)
- 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
- 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec)
- 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev)
- 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton)
- 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
- 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
- 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice)
- 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
- 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)
