Fern Britton’s agents have claimed responsibility for her being snubbed from a Bafta event to celebrate This Morning’s 30th birthday.
The missing invitation was the subject of an awkward exchange with her former co-host Phillip Schofield when she reunited with him on the show on Wednesday.
While speaking to him and Holly Willoughby via a live link-up, Fern claimed she hadn’t been invited to Monday evening’s celebration, before the row spilled over onto Twitter.
Phillip accused her of having ”#memoryloss” and called her comments in their interview “very odd”, insisting she had been invited, while she continued to claim she hadn’t.
However, hours after the show aired, Fern’s agents, Troika Talent, came forward to admit they had turned the invitation down on her behalf, but hadn’t actually told her.
In a tweet sent from their account, they said: “HUGE apologies from Troika to @thismorning . An invitation to @Fern_Britton from #BAFTA did arrive, but as she was touring with #CalendarGirls we assumed she wouldn’t be able to attend, and we declined.
“Fern had no idea that she had been invited. Luckily, she has forgiven us.”
They added: “Apologies again for any embarrassment caused to @thismorning & @Fern_Britton.”
After she had been flooded with messages from fans, Fern tweeted: “And here is what happened! Thank goodness I was invited, even if I didn’t actually receive the invitation. See you next time @BAFTA xxxx.”
Phillip also retweeted Fern’s comments, although they are yet to apologise to one another publicly.
While Fern and Phil were famously close when they hosted the show together between 2002 and 2009, but were rumoured to have fallen out over a row about pay, allegedly prompting her to quit.
While Fern denied this was the case in an interview earlier this year, fans have long speculated that relations between them have broken down since she left following a number of comments they have made about each other in interviews.
In 2013, Phillip revealed they were no longer in contact, telling Heat magazine: “We were involved in the show and mates at the time, but we don’t really...
“I see Phil [Fern’s husband, chef Phil Vickery] when he’s in ‘This Morning’... But we’re not in touch now.”
Fern also skipped the show’s 25th anniversary celebrations that same year, choosing just to send in a short video message.
‘This Morning’ airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.