IF you believe everything you read in the national newspapers, then the current tale about Fern Britton is certainly a sorry one.
To recap: Somehow she ended up on the front page of the News of the World after they got the shock horror story that her recent weight loss was not just down to exercise and eating well – she'd had a gastric band.
Now, about a month on from this, if the “sources” on the This Morning programme are to believed, Fern's brave face in front of the cameras is masking a weepy, withdrawn woman off camera who now fears for her career.
I have several questions, all of which start with the word “why.” Why should she lose her job? Why does one, reasonably good mid-morning TV presenter's choice of weight loss warrant the front page of the UK's best-selling Sunday newspaper? And why is she being treated as though she failed to mention she was the strategist behind Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe regime?
Ultimately, Fern has made a good fist of presenting what is, and always has been, a rather dull format for a TV programme. This Morning is designed to be about 90 minutes of bite-sized features, which she and Phillip Schofield pull off quite well. Actually, they appear to have more chemistry on-screen than the founding presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, which given the latter are married asks all sorts of questions which are probably best discussed on the bitchy forums which have taken such delight at Fern's diet “secret.”
But that's all Fern is – a TV presenter. She has never put herself up as some sort of role model to women. She has never jumped in front of the camera and said “Look at me you obese women out there. Get some exercise, swap the digestives for Ryvita and you too can lose a truck load.”
No, instead, when asked about her weight, she attributed it to exercise and eating healthily. Which is what she must have done to lose so much weight. Having a gastric band fitted doesn't suddenly make you slim. It helps, certainly, but a quick search on Google will tell you that even with a giant elastic band wrapped around your innards, it's possible to cheat. Ice cream, apparently, is one way of continuing to eat when your squeezed stomach says it is full.
So did Fern lie? No – the woman's ridden a bike across a continent for charity. That counts as exercise in my book. Did she tell the whole truth? Arguably not, but then why should she? She's a woman who appears on the telly from 10.30am until just after noon every day, that's it. She's not a publiclly accountable figure and she's entitled to a private life. If you don't agree with the last bit, then you probably don't have a private life.
All she has done is take the steps she felt she needed to to shed some weight. It quite possibly could have been done through simply eating less and exercising more but Fern felt she needed a helping hand. She shouldn't have felt the need to go on telly to discuss it in advance, or invite an ITV phone-in poll on the matter (which is just as well, because back then it probably would have been fixed anyway).
If she'd suddenly become the face of WeightWatchers then it would be different. But she didn't. For a while, she seemed so much happier than in the past, and it would be a shame if that happiness has been lost, and a career ruined, by spiteful viewers who are piling on to forums now claiming that Fern can't go on because she is “no longer the voice of women.”
What bollocks. She was never a voice of women, or viewers, or fat people, or dieters or any other group of people. And those who keep firing shots at her on forums – including This Morning's – need to get a grip and ask themselves these questions: Why are you having a go at a good TV presenter? Have you nothing better to worry about? Aren't you just jealous that someone has managed to achieve what you can't because you lack the will power? And finally, Isn't it time you got a life?
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