Fern Britton's weight journey from gastric band to lockdown and 5 stone loss

12 March 2024 , 19:35

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Fern Britton has lost five stone after changing her lifestyle (Image: GC Images)

Fern Britton was heartbreakingly forced to defend herself against a backlash following her gastric band surgery.

Best known for presenting This Morning from 1999 to 2009, Ready Steady Cook from 1994 and strutting her stuff on Strictly Come Dancing in 2012, Fern is one of the most recognisable faces on this year’s Celebrity Big Brother.

Since she was first catapulted onto our screens in the 90s, she has shared her weight loss journey with fans. At 66 years of age, she is looking fitter and healthier than ever after a recent health kick. Here, The Mirror takes a look at her weight loss journey from her controversial decision to have a gastric band fitted to her more recent weight loss secret...

Fern Britton took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 (BBC)

Pictured in April 2017, the presenter underwent gastric band surgery while working on This Morning (GC Images)

Over the years, the much loved presenter has fluctuated between a size 22 and a size 12. In 2008, Fern revealed that she'd had a gastric band fitted two years earlier. Gastric surgery reduces the capacity of a person's stomach and slows down the passage of food, helping people lose weight by making them feel fuller after eating fewer calories.

To improve her chance of success, Fern also ate fewer carbohydrates and cut microwave meals from her diet. She told the Daily Mail in 2011: "My cholesterol was high. My knee joints were starting to hurt. I wasn't able to run. I was approaching 50 and I thought, 'Do you know what? I'm going to be different when I'm 50'. I was cycling like mad and nothing was happening.

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“My GP said I was a good candidate for a band, so I went ahead. I needed to get healthy. I wasn't unhappy the way I was; I was unhealthy. I'd been recovering from having children, having a divorce, all those emotional things."

TV chef Phil Vickery helped Fern devise a healthy eating plan

Back then, Fern was married to second husband, TV chef Phil Vickery, who helped her devise a healthy eating plan. He said: "Fern has cut right back on carbohydrates and eats a really healthy diet now with loads of vegetables and fruit.” The couple were together for 20 years before announcing their split in 2020.

However, fans weren't happy given Fern was the face of Ryvita at the time, and she was forced to defend herself, insisting: "I hadn't lied. No one ever asked me how I'd lost weight. It's something I did for myself, and I naively thought I'm entitled to privacy, but clearly I'm not."

Fast forward to the Covid lockdowns Fern said she had gained weight like so many others. "I've put on weight in lockdown, and it's life," she told Bella magazine. "I keep thinking there is no point in lying. It's a good thing to say to people, 'This is what happens when you get older.'" This time, the Ready Steady Cook star completed the Couch to 5k challenge - a running plan for beginners.

Fern Britton in Woman & Home in 2003 (Publicity Picture)

Fern is one of the more popular contestants on CBB 2024 (ITV)

Fern first completed the couch to 5k challenge in July 2023 posting on Instagram last month saying: 'I've just completed couch to 5k again. 'I know I did it last year and I was very excited. And then after I had my shoulder done, I gave it eight weeks before I started again.”

Her health is important to her. Back in 2016, Fern almost died from sepsis. The TV star admitted she 'knew she was dying' after being in immense pain, before undergoing an emergency operation to remove the abscesses. Then in September 2023 the TV presenter had a shoulder replacement after arthritis left her in constant pain.

The warm presenter shares twins Harry and Jack, 29, and Grace, 26, with first husband Clive Jones and daughter Winnie, 22, with Phil Vickery. She reportedly told Celebrity Big Brother producers she is not afraid to spill the beans on her split with the TV chef and told ex-housemate and Kate Middleton’s uncle Gary Goldsmith she may walk out of the house if her former colleague Phil Schofield walks in.

* Celebrity Big Brother continues tonight on ITV at 9pm

Jackie Annett