Ferne McCann breaks down in tears as she apologises for voice note scandal

Former Only Way is Essex star Ferne McCann broke down in tears during a TV appearance today (15 March) after she issued an apology for a series of leaked voice notes.

Between September and November 2022, voice notes in which Ferne made a series of comments about her former friends Sam and Billie Faiers leaked.

In these, Ferne appeared to call Sam a 'fat c***', as well as a 'narcissistic b****', before adding 'she just won't care'.

In another one of the voice notes, Ferne seemed to hit out at Billie for giving her son the same name as her jailed ex Arthur.

And weeks after the initial leak, the anonymous account that posted the clips claimed Ferne also made comments about her ex Arthur's acid attack victim Sophie Hall, allegedly calling her 'ugly'.

Today (15 March), Ferne appeared on ITV's This Morning where hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby got onto the subject.

ITV

This came after the ITV programme showed a clip from Ferne's reality TV show where she explained to James 'Arg' Argent how the leak affected her.

She said it got to the point where she struggled with the school run as she was worried what people might have said to her.

Speaking on This Morning, she said: "It's really hard to watch. It's the nature of the beast with reality TV.

"Engagement and pregnancy, you celebrate along with the people who watch your show and it's great.

"With me, I do wear my heart on my sleeve. I am transparent with the viewers so when you go through something difficult, you can't just throw in the towel. It's warts and all."

The celeb then issued an apology, adding: "It wasn't my finest hour and it definitely was a very difficult time in my life when those voice notes were leaked.

ITV

"I need to take this opportunity to publicly apologise again to those affected."

She continued: "Obviously the words I used were unpleasant, but I have reached out privately to those people.

"It's very difficult - I'd love to sit here with you guys and with my followers and share exactly what went on, but it's now part of a criminal investigation.

"I can't do that but what I can say is, these voice notes were from a time when I was in a very vulnerable situation and it was a very very difficult situation for me, five or six years ago.

"Since then, I've done a lot of work on myself."

Ferne has also said that the voice messages were edited and were 'taken entirely out of context'.

An Essex Police spokesperson said at the time of the leak: "We are investigating a report of malicious communication which was made to us in Brentwood on Thursday 29 September.

"We have spoken to the victim, a woman aged in her 30s, and our enquiries are ongoing."