Fern Britton reveals amusing moment which caused her to give up smoking for good

Fern Britton has revealed the comical moment which caused her to give up smoking. The former host and author, 67, says she turned to cigarettes and alcohol like many people during the covid lockdown.

But having taken up the habit later in life she quit tobacco again following an eventful night with friends in Cornwall. Speaking at she explained: "The fags, I was so good at it! And I was 62, 63. I took to it like a duck to water! It punctuated the day, lets have a fag and then what time is it 4 O'clock? Let's have a glass of wine.

"Looking back I was in a very bad place and gradually I started to pull myself out of it." She then added that driving home with her niece and a friend she had to stop the car to be sick in the field after "overdoing the nicotine" at a village party.

Giggling she added: "I was in the hedgerow retching so much that I farted, and all I could hear in the car was the girls saying 'classy lady' - so I haven't touched one since." Fern then managed to get back into exercise too which put her back on track and she has written a new book about what she calls "repowering" your life as you get older.

She said: "Older people, we pretend that we've led model lives to our children and grandchildren, and I think it's about time we remembered that actually we did flatten the grass with a lot of unsuitable people. "We did get absolutely off our faces on cheap beer and cider and, yes, most of us did try a bit of drugs even if it's just a quick spliff but we did it and there's no point in pretending we were angels."

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To this end her book is about recalling those younger days and using them for inspiration today.

She says: "When I was in my twenties I had lots of energy, lots of power and lots of fun. I'm going to reach back and pull that into this lifestyle and take It forward. And you can do that too."

Fern's life has seen a huge overhaul since she became single when she split from chef husband Phil Vickery in 2020. She has relocated to Cornwall and has gone from being a TV regular to more occasional appearances on screen combined with a career as an author.

Years on from fronting Ready, Steady, Cook and , she now has 10 books now, with an 11th on the way, but Fern still refuses to call herself a writer as she has imposter's syndrome. She said: "I'm not very good at saying myself 'Well done'. I'm gung ho but I am amazed when things happen."

* The Older I Get…How I repowered my life by Fern Britton will be published by Ebury Spotlight on November 7.

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