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Fern Britton revealed she was forced to leave her home as a child when her father failed to pay a tax bill. The former This Morning presenter, 68, has been open about the struggles she faced during her childhood, where she grew up living with her mother, Ruth Britton, and sister Cherry Britton.

In her 50s, Fern discovered she was conceived as a result of a one-night stand between her parents, after her father, actor Tony Britton, had left her mother. In a new interview with The Times, Fern touched upon the life she lived as a child, recalling how she grew up in a large house in Buckinghamshire. She said: "My father chose the area as it was close to Pinewood Studios. Except he never lived in the house because he'd already decided on his next wife. My mum must have been in a terrible state. But for me it was like, this is how life is."

Despite Tony embarking on a successful career as an actor, Fern admitted her family still faced financial issues.

She told the publication: "We had to leave our house when my father had a tax bill issue. I was six. One day I got home from school and there was nothing except two mattresses on the floor and my sister's piano as she needed to practise for an exam.

"My mum's furniture couldn't fit in our tiny new house. We were moved from a fee-paying school, where my mum taught, to the village school. As an adult I swore to always be up to date with my bills."

In a candid admission, Fern revealed she suffered from depression as a child. The TV presenter detailed just a few of the strict rules she was forced to follow when her mother remarried, saying: "I was ten when my stepfather arrived. New rules came into the house. I had to knock on the door of a room before I entered. Any call I made, I had to put money by the phone."

In a previous interview with The Mirror, Fern admitted there were several things kept from her throughout her childhood.

"There were so many secrets when I was growing up," the Celebrity Big Brother star said. "I never grew up with my father and didn't know what had happened."

She continued: "When I was in my 50s he told me he'd left my mum and sister, but on a visit home, he jumped back into bed with my mum. By the time he was finished and gone, I was conceived. Everybody must have known but nobody told me."

Fern also wasn't aware that she had another brother until she was a teenager.

"I didn't realise he'd left and he was remarried and had my brother and nobody told me. I don't know why they didn't," she said on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast in 2022.