Fern Britton has admitted that she is friends again with Phillip Schofield.

The TV presenter has been in touch with her former ‘This Morning’ co-host – two years after she quit the ITV1 morning show over claims he was being paid three times more than her – and says that their friendship is now back on track.

Fern – who is to launch her new chat show ‘Fern’ on Channel 4 on Monday (28.03.11) – said: “I had a lovely text from Phillip Schofield last night. I can’t tell you what it said – it’s personal – but it was very nice, very nice indeed.

“I wasn’t expecting it – it just came out of the blue last night when I was on my way home in the car. It was very sweet of him.”

Although she is now on good terms with Phillip, Fern says she is looking forward to doing a show on her own, because that’s what she’s used to.

She added to The Sun newspaper: “I’ve been an individual all my life and I only worked with Phillip for six years. The rest of my time I was an individual doing my thing.

“You know what? I’m not frightened by things any more. I’m fearless. I don’t care. If it goes well, it goes well. But if not, I tried.”

‘Fern’ will run for four weeks from Monday and if it’s a success, she will return full-time in the autumn.