Celebrity Big Brother’s Fern Britton has been married twice but before this she had her heart broken by her first love. The former This Morning presenter, 66, opened up about her heartbreak as she discussed her time at the Central School of Speech and Drama where she trained in stage management.

Appearing on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast, Fern said: “I had a boyfriend I fell very much in love with, and he was the first person to tell me that he loved me, no one else had ever mentioned that before.

“He said, ‘I love you’, and I went, ‘Oh!’ It blew me away, absolutely.

“I was 17 or 18 and in love with this guy, naughty Nick, who knows jolly well. His daughters even say to him nowadays that he is a heartbreaker, which he was.

“It was absolutely a door into a different set of feelings, it was very good, although of course there was the heartbreak and all that because you are young.”

After splitting up from “naughty Nick”, Fern went on to marry her first husband, TV executive Clive Jones, in 1988. They share three children: twins Jack and Harry, 29, and Grace, 26.

The pair were married for 22 years before divorcing in 2000. That same year, she married chef Phil Vickery.

They met on the set of BBC Two’s Ready Steady Cook and had a daughter named Winnie in 2001.

In 2020, Phil and Fern announced their unexpected breakup, saying the decision was “amicable” and that they would “continue to be friends”.

She wrote on Twitter at the time: “After more than 20 happy years together, Phil and I have decided to go our separate ways.

“We will always share a great friendship and our lovely children. We would appreciate it if our privacy is respected at this time. Thank you for your continued kindness and support.”

Shortly after the announcement, Fern shared that her marriage “falling apart” came after a family tragedy.

The presenter sadly lost her parents just a few months apart, her father Tony died in December 2019 and her mother Ruth died in April 2018.

She said on Good Morning Britain in 2020: “My mum died and my father died and unfortunately Phil and I fell apart… then lockdown happened and it was like three months of, I needed that rest.”

Fern is now in ITV’s first series of Celebrity Big Brother. It airs Sunday to Friday at 9pm.