Former GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips thought her husband had kidnapped her because of “delusions” brought on by Alzheimer’s disease, he has said.
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”.
She has since written a memoir titled Remember When, with the help of her husband, former This Morning editor Martin Frizell, which aims to help others who have been diagnosed with the disease.
Her husband offered an update on Phillips’ condition on Friday, recounting that at times she does not remember that he is her husband.
Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, Mr 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”.
Mr 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’.”
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.
It is a “progressive condition” that can affect memory, thinking skills and other mental abilities, with symptoms developing gradually over many years and which often become more severe.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease but there are medicines available that can temporarily improve some symptoms.
Speaking about the condition, Mr Frizell said: “Society has decided we’re not going to take it as seriously as we should.
“The money that’s there for Alzheimer’s research, it’s like buying a Starbucks cup of coffee, basically trying to fight a disease. It’s impossible.”
He also said the pair had conversations early on about Phillips giving him lasting power of attorney to ensure that if she cannot make health or financial decisions for herself then he can on her behalf.
Despite this Mr Frizell said he has been accused by some banks or utility groups of trying to “win one over on” Phillips.
He said: “There’s two types. There’s health and finance, but it gives me control of those things. If she’s not able to make decisions for herself, then I have power of attorney to do it on her behalf.
“Pretty much everyone, banks, utilities, should accept that – most of them do. There’s one or two, I’m not going to name them, who actually are accusing me of well, actually, maybe you’re trying to sort of win one over on. This needs a bit more evidence. I’m thinking, what evidence do you need? But by and large, LPA (lasting power of attorney) is a must for folks. Once you get to your 50s, you should definitely get it.”
Mr 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.
