Latest news with #earlyonset
The Independent
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Fiona Phillips issues rare video message after Alzheimer's diagnosis
Fiona Phillips has appeared in a rare video message, thanking readers for their support of her Alzheimer 's memoir, posted to her husband Martin Frizell's Instagram account on Friday (18 July). The TV presenter was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2022 and went public in 2023 to raise awareness and tackle stigma surrounding the disease. Phillips, who married the former editor of This Morning in 1997, has documented her experiences in a new book titled Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's, written with the help of Frizell and journalist Alison Phillips.
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
'We used to have good days and bad days - now it's just bad days or wretched days': Fiona Phillips' husband Martin Frizell on nursing his Alzheimer's-hit wife
Fiona Phillips' husband has said his Alzheimer's-hit wife 'used to have good days and bad days - now it's just bad or wretched days'. Ms Phillips was just 61 when she found out in 2022 that she had early-onset Alzheimer's. Since then the 64-year-old has been cared for by her husband, former This Morning editor Martin Frizell. Mr Frizell made the comment in a new interview with BBC Newsnight in which he spoke candidly about the former GMTV presenter's battle with the memory-eroding condition. He said: 'I used to say good days and bad days, now I just say bad days or wretched days, I think wretched is a great word for it.' Mr Frizell said the day of the interview the couple had gone to see a doctor and Ms Phillips was repeatedly unable to remember their destination. 'In the cab ride, 35 minutes, she asked me 72 times, where are we going?' he said. He also said that his wife is no longer able to drive herself 'because she panics' and he is fearful of taking her on public transport because 'she doesn't look any different' which might lead strangers to approach her - something which would leave her 'flummoxed'. Fiona Phillips' husband, journalist Mr Frizell, spoke candidly about the former GMTV presenter's battle withAlzheimer's in a new interview with BBC Newsnight The couple, who wed in 1997, share two sons who are also involved in looking after their ailing mother. On July 17 Phillips released a new book, Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's, written with the help of Mr Frizell and journalist Alison Phillips, a long-standing friend. The tome is described as an attempt to 'chronicle what was happening to her in the hope that her book would help others.' In the Newsnight interview, Mr Frizell talked movingly about his wife's deterioration as he watched her lose interest in things that previously brought her pleasure like cooking and her wardrobe of 'wonderful clothes' that now mean nothing to her: He said: 'She hasn't really cooked for two years. I was saying to somebody the other day, the most heartbreaking thing, lots of heartbreaking points in our lives just now, but downstairs in a basement, I've got a door wedged open by cookery books, and I don't know what to do because she's never going to cook again. 'Do I donate them? Do I take them to the dump? What do I do with them? Same with her clothes as well. 'She will wear, and everybody who has got someone who's going through dementia will know this, we are just pretty much sharing our experience; she's got the most wonderful wardrobe of wonderful clothes, but she'll wear the same thing, the same t-shirt, the same pair of trousers, sleep in it if need be.' Mr Frizell also says that as shocking as it may sound, he wishes his wife Fiona had contracted cancer rather than Alzheimer's. Fiona Phillips has not cooked in years and has no time for her dressing room of designer clothes as she battles Alzheimer's, her husband Martin Frizell has revealed. Pictured: The couple in 2010 Martin Frizell said at times he wishes his wife had got cancer rather than Alzheimer's as at least then 'she would have had some hope' and been able to enjoy life's little pleasures He said: 'At least she would have had some hope, hope of, and I know you've been through it and it's awful, my mom died from it, my father had cancer, so I know what cancer can do, but I don't think Fiona's ever going to be able to taste a glass of wine again, walk on a beach properly again, go on holiday again, go to the theatre, go to cinema, drive her car, cook a meal for her children, and my worry is on her deathbed, whenever that may come, and hopefully it will be in a long time from now, will she even know who we are? 'I think with cancer though, of course it can be awful and I'm not trying to put that down, but at least there's a hope, there's the chance remission can take you to the end of your life. There's no remission for Alzheimer's.' Mr Frizell also touched on the level of attention given to cancer and cancer care compared to Alzheimer's. 'For every one Alzheimer's researcher, there are four cancer researchers,' he said. 'I'll tell you what I think. I mean I'm not campaigning about this. I'm not going to be the poster boy for this. 'This is pretty much all we're going to talk about, as well as the book, that's it. But again, this HS2, it cost a billion pounds a mile. If you give a billion pounds to Dr. Catherine Mummery at UCLH, I bet we'll come up with something. 'And this is, as you said, a third of us are going to get it. Of every baby that's born this week or today, one in three of them is going to get this. 'If this was a COVID disease that came out, that was going to wipe out a third of humanity, we'd come up with some sort of answer quite quickly, wouldn't we? 'But this is 120 years now and nothing has been done in Alzheimer's because, well, "They've had a good life."
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fiona Phillips' husband recalls heartbreaking moment she didn't recognise their son amid Alzheimer's battle
Fiona Phillips' husband Martin Frizell has opened up about the painful moment the TV presenter failed to recognise their eldest son during her ongoing battle with Alzheimer's disease. The Kent-born journalist, 64, announced in 2023 that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, after initially thinking she was having menopause symptoms when she first started experiencing 'brain fog and anxiety'. Alzheimer's is described as the most common cause of dementia, which is the name for a group of symptoms associated with an ongoing decline of brain function, according to the NHS website. In her upcoming memoir Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's, Frizell, 66, recalls the moment Phillips became 'terribly distressed' after not recognising Nathaniel, 26. In an extract published in The Mirror, Frizell penned: 'One weekend, Nat was home from the Army and making tea in the kitchen while Fiona and I sat watching television. 'She became terribly distressed. 'Who's that man in the kitchen?' she asked me. 'That's Nat', I said gently. 'Our son. He's home for the weekend'. 'She was in such a state that she didn't even seem upset that she had asked the question.' He wrote that while Nat would have been 'devastated' had he heard it, he thankfully wasn't present at the time. The couple have previously spoken about their fear that the illness could be inherited by their kids; Nathaniel and Mackenzie, 23. When the presenter was first diagnosed, both she and Frizell were deeply concerned that the disease might be genetic and could potentially affect their sons in the future. However, after undergoing genetic testing, they were relived to learn they weren't in danger of inheriting the disease. Recently, Frizell recalled how the former GMTV presenter thought he had kidnapped her because of 'delusions' brought on by Alzheimer's disease. Speaking on ITV's This Morning, Frizell said: 'She'd love to be here, but she's got anxiety. 'She's got a kind of a secondary problem that causes her to be in pain, a lot, a lot of pain, which adds to the confusion. So it's difficult. 'In the book, there's a picture of her at the end of our road, picking the most recent picture I took, only a few weeks ago, and she's looking great, and she's kind of smiling, and she's got a coat on and what you don't know is, she thought I'd kidnapped her.' He explained that the condition causes 'all sort of delusions', adding that Phillips would get 'kind of worked up'. Frizell added: 'She does recognise me most of the times. Doesn't quite know that I'm her husband, but she knows who I am. 'On these occasions, and it's not frequent, but every now and then, she'll want to go home to her parents. I haven't got the heart to say they aren't here. 'What you do is, you say, 'Let's get our coats on, let's get our shoes on', we go up around the block a couple of times and come back in. And she says, 'Oh, I'm home now'.' Frizell announced in November that he was stepping down as the editor of This Morning, after a decade in the post, saying he was expecting 'family priorities to change' and needed to free up time for them. He oversaw the long-running morning show as it won numerous awards, including a Bafta and seven National Television Awards. Phillips is best known for presenting GMTV from 1993 to 2008, before going on to head up a number of documentaries and episodes of Panorama. She quit TV in 2018 after she started to suffer from anxiety and was also one of the Mirror's longest-serving columnists. Phillips cared for her parents after both of them were also diagnosed with the condition and has made two documentaries about the disease, one in 2009 called Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's And Me, about her family's history of dementia, and My Family And Alzheimer's in 2010. She has also served as an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society.
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Fiona Phillips ‘distressed' after failing to recognise her own son in heartbreaking Alzheimer's battle, reveals husband
FIONA Phillips was 'distressed' after she failed to recognise her own son amid her Alzheimer's battle. The popular broadcaster, 64, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in 2022 and her condition has deteriorated since, with her even failing to recognise her son Nat. 6 6 6 Fiona has two sons, Nat, 24, and Mackenzie, 21. Her husband Martin Frizell, 66, whom she shares her boys with, has now revealed that Fiona became "distressed" when she asked who the man was who was in their kitchen In Fiona's new book, Remember When: My life with Alzheimer's, Martin narrates part of it. In an extract published in The Mirror Martin recalls the moment Fiona didn't recognise her eldest time. He pens in the tome: "One weekend, Nat was home from the Army and making tea in the kitchen while Fiona and I sat watching television." He added: "She became terribly distressed. 'Who's that man in the kitchen?' she asked me. 'That's Nat' I said gently. 'Our son. He's home for the weekend'," he explained. Martin went on: "She was in such a state that she didn't even seem upset that she had asked the question." He then said that Nat would have been "devastated" to hear his mother being unable to recognise him. Meanwhile, Mail had an exclusive extract, also, where Martin writes in the book: "We did tackle one fear and talked to Fiona's consultant about whether she had inherited the illness from her parents. "She then had a genetic test, because if she carried the gene for Alzheimer's there was a danger the boys would have it, too, which in turn might mean them thinking about IVF if they wanted children, in order to break the genetic line. Fiona Phillips' husband Martin Frizell gives devastating update on her Alzheimer's battle as he appears on This Morning "Thankfully, the test was negative.' He added: "That meant she didn't carry the gene so the boys wouldn't either. But the doctor said she was clearly predisposed to Alzheimer's. "I didn't entirely understand what he meant. How could someone be 'predisposed' to a particular disease if there wasn't something in their genetic make-up that determined it?". Fiona, whose late mum and dad both had Alzheimer's, left GMTV in December 2008 to spend more time with her family. She took on small jobs such as 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. She was also starting to struggle with mood swings, erratic behaviour and an inability to complete everyday tasks, such as going to the bank. 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 that 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 the menopause and recommended a course of hormone replacement therapy. But after several months of seeing little change, Dr Newson recommended she be properly assessed. In 2022, a consultant broke the heartbreaking news to the couple that Fiona, then 61, had early onset Alzheimer's. 6 6 6
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Fiona Phillips' husband makes heartbreaking admission about her Alzheimer's diagnosis
Fiona Phillips ' husband, Martin Frizell, has made a heartbreaking admission about her Alzheimer 's diagnosis, revealing that she 'doesn't quite know that I'm her husband.' The TV presenter was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer 's in 2022 and went public in 2023 to raise awareness. Frizell, former editor of This Morning, stepped down from his role in 2024 to focus on family. Appearing on This Morning on Friday (July 11), he shared that Fiona sometimes becomes confused about who he is. Referring to a recent photo, he said, 'She's looking great and she's kinda smiling... And what you don't know is she thought I'd kidnapped her.' He added she recognises him 'most of the time.'
