Fiona Phillips' heartbreaking Alzheimer's claim after husband's cancer 'wish'
The TV presenter, 64, has been candid about her experience with the memory disease since revealing her diagnosis in July 2023.
Two years on, Phillips and her husband of 28 years, Martin Frizell, 65, have shared the ins and outs of their life now (and how much it has transformed) in a new memoir, Remember When: My Life with Alzheimer's.
Frizell offered a 'brutally honest' admission, explaining that he wished she had been diagnosed with cancer instead, in an excerpt included in the Daily Mail.
He added: 'It's a shocking thing to say, but at least then she might have had a chance of a cure, and certainly would have had a treatment pathway and an array of support and care packages.
'But that's not there for Alzheimer's. Just like there are no funny or inspiring TikTok videos or fashion shoots with smiling, healthy, in-remission survivors,' he reflected, adding that post-diagnosis you are just 'left to cope alone'.
Frizell has now taken on the responsibility of day-to-day life from paying bills to household chores which he used to 'take for granted' and brought on board a trained carer to help alleviate some of the intensity from him and their 23-year-old son MacKenzie.
He explained that as of January 2025, he helps Phillips 'brush her teeth and shower' and dress herself. As well as eating and drinking.
There have been days when she has demanded to see her late parents in moments of 'extreme confusion',, Frizell shared.
Elsewhere in the book, the former GMTV host also shared her own perspective on her deterioration and the difficulties she has faced in accepting it.
She admitted that she finds discussing her life now 'agonisingly difficult'.
'Sometimes I get halfway through a sentence and I can't remember where I was heading with it or the word I was looking for. It feels awful,' she said, comparing her condition to 'trying to chase a £5 note that's fallen out of your purse on a gusty day'.
The couple decided to start telling their friends and family about her Alzheimer's to explain any 'unusual behaviour', something Phillips hadn't thought she did.
Early-onset Alzheimer's is also known as young-onset dementia or younger-onset Alzheimer's. It is the label given to anyone who receives a diagnosis before they turn 65.
According to Alzheimer's Research UK, an estimated 70,800 people with dementia in the UK have young onset, and Alzheimer's disease accounts for around one in three cases of young onset dementia.
It is thought at least five in every 100 people with Alzheimer's are under 65, however the figure may be higher.
According to the NHS, the symptoms of Alzheimer's can begin with usually minor memory problems, but can develop into: confusion, disorientation and getting lost in familiar places
difficulty planning or making decisions
problems with speech and language
problems moving around without assistance or performing self-care tasks
personality changes, such as becoming aggressive, demanding and suspicious of others
hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there) and delusions (believing things that are untrue)
low mood or anxiety
'But he and the doctors, who I was constantly backwards and forwards to see, would say that I kept repeating myself and that sometimes I forgot what I was doing or where I was going.
'The strange thing was I had no awareness of that,' she said.
In November 2024, Frizell announced he was stepping down as editor of ITV's This Morning after more than a decade in order to support in wife. More Trending
At the time, he wrote: 'Next year I'm expecting my family priorities to change, so I need to free up time for them.'
Meanwhile, Phillips, who lost her mother to Alzheimer's aged 74 in 2006, has previously spoken about her worry as to how people will 'perceive' her.
'There is still an issue with this disease that the public thinks of old people, bending over a stick, talking to themselves.
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'But I'm still here, getting out and about, meeting friends for coffee, going for dinner with Martin, and walking every day,' she told The Mirror.
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'Just like there are no funny or inspiring TikTok videos or fashion shoots with smiling, healthy, in-remission survivors.' He goes on: 'After someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, they are pretty much left to their own devices. 'There is nothing more that can be done and you are left to cope alone.' Back in January 1997, Fiona felt like the 'luckiest woman alive' when she landed the job of a lifetime as lead presenter on GMTV. But behind the scenes, it was pressure-cooker stuff — 4am starts, non-stop stress and a producer 'barking' in her earpiece. At home, life was just as intense. With two young sons, Nathanial and Mackenzie, plus a weekly newspaper column, radio show and endless TV gigs, she was 'running on empty'. Weekends were spent away in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, caring for her mum Amy, who was slowly slipping away due to Alzheimer's and died in 2006. Soon after losing his wife, her dad Phil was diagnosed with the same illness. Fiona previously said the drive from London to Wales every other weekend with the two boys strapped in the backseat 'nearly cracked me up'. She left GMTV in December 2008 — reportedly midway through a £1.5million contract, which cost her £500,000 — to spend more time with her family. Fiona admitted back then that the decision was the 'hardest I have ever had to make — like jumping off a cliff and hoping someone will save me halfway down',. But she revealed she had 'finally discovered that I can't have it all' and felt like she was 'dropping balls' all over the place. While Fiona finally had more time to dedicate to Martin and the boys, her career never quite recovered. She took on bits and pieces of work — including a stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2005 and presenting a Channel 4 documentary titled Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's and Me in 2009. But Fiona admitted she never felt 'completely right' and became 'disconnected' from her family. Meanwhile, she was starting to struggle with mood swings, erratic behaviour and an inability to complete everyday tasks, such as going to the bank. 6 6 Things came to a head with Martin in 2021 and he moved out of the family home, accusing her of 'zoning out' of their marriage. After three weeks apart, the couple met at a hotel and agreed they wanted to stay together — but things had to change. Fiona had initially suspected the exhaustion, anxiety and brain fog she had been battling was a side effect of Long Covid. She contracted the virus in 2020. But by then, Fiona was wondering if her symptoms were down to menopause. Martin urged her to talk to telly doctor Dr Louise Newson, who specialised in menopause and recommended a course of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). But after several months of seeing little change, Dr Newson recommended she was properly assessed. In 2022, a consultant broke the heartbreaking news to the couple that Fiona, then 61, had early onset Alzheimer's. It's something I might have thought I'd get at 80…but I was still only 61. My poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad. It keeps coming back for us. Fiona Fiona had secretly feared that one day it would come for her, too, after it 'decimated' her family. But the news still came as a shock. Writing in her book, she recalls: 'Neither of us said a word. 'We sat rigid, locked in suspended animation between everything our lives had been before this moment and everything they would become beyond it.' She previously told the Mirror: 'It's something I might have thought I'd get at 80 . . . but I was still only 61 years old. "My poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle. It just keeps coming back for us.' Fiona and Martin kept her diagnosis quiet for a year, as she hated the idea of becoming 'an object of gossip or even pity'. 'Horrible secret' Gradually, the couple began to feel they should tell more people, so Fiona would be understood and not judged if she began behaving strangely. Realising the impact she could have by raising awareness of the disease's symptoms, the star decided to go public in July 2023. Fiona characteristically insisted she was 'getting on with it', adding of her illness: 'I'm not taking notice of it. 'I'm just doing what I normally do. 'I don't want to not work, be sitting around playing with my fingers or watching telly. 'I just like doing things.' She told the Mirror: 'All over the country, there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it — it's heartbreaking. 'I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future . . . it's a horrible bloody secret to divulge.' While there is no cure for Alzheimer's, Fiona is currently taking drugs to slow the illness's progression. She also joined a trial programme for a drug called Miridesap at University College Hospital in London, in a bid to slow the effects of the disease. But Fiona now needs a lot of help with everyday tasks including showering, brushing her teeth and getting dressed. Martin said his wife is 'existing', unable to remember 'anything from 30 seconds ago', and she 'can't think about or imagine a future'. At times, she becomes distressed and confused, shouting at him that he isn't her husband. It is something he finds difficult, but understands that the illness has 'taken her mind'. Martin admitted the journey is an exhausting and lonely one, writing that it breaks his heart to see his 'strong, independent wife has become so vulnerable'. He adds: 'I'd like to tell you Fiona is content in the situation into which she has been forced. 'I'd like to give readers some sense that she is at peace. 'But that wouldn't be the truth. 'She isn't — she is frustrated every single day. And depressed. 'I miss her. I miss my wife.' Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's by Fiona Phillips (Macmillan, £22), is out July 17. 6
