Royal geek' Fern got on Charles' Christmas list

TV PRESENTER and best-selling author Fern Britton is a self-confessed "royal geek" who wrote so regularly to the Royal Family that she was once on Prince Charles' Christmas card list.

- Marc Baker

And the one person the This Morning legend wished she had interviewed was the Queen.

She also said she hoped that somewhere lurking in an archive is a collection of the Queen's true views after she decided she was at an age where she could throw caution to the wind.

Fern said that like much of the nation, her reaction to the "devastating" news of the Queen's death was silence. But she found it a comfort she died of old age and was not in pain.

Fern, 66, is expected to enter the Celebrity Brother house tomorrow.

Big But it won't be the first time she has competed against fellow celebrities on TV. She appeared in series 10 of BBC's Strictly, which launched in 2012, and was eliminated in week six.

She said: "I have always been a bit of a royal geek, even when I was a teenager.

"I used to write to Prince Charles. I was at drama school at the time doing a stage manager course and I got a diploma.