Fiona Phillips has shared the heartbreaking details of the toll her Alzheimer’s is having on her husband, who said he wishes she had ‘cancer instead.’
The 64-year-old TV presenter has been open about her illness since her diagnosis in July 2023.
After two years, Phillips and her husband of 28 years, Martin Frizell, 65, have shared the complicated journey of their life now in a new memoir, ‘Remember When: My Life with Alzheimer’s’.
Martin shared his devastating admission, confessing he wishes she had been diagnosed with cancer instead – according to an excerpt shared with the Daily Mail.
He explained: “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 added that post-diagnosis you are just “left to cope alone.”
Since the diagnosis, Martin took on complete responsibility for the household, from paying bills to chores, with he said he used to “take for granted.” To help alleviate some of the pressure from himself and their 23-year-old son MacKenzie, he hired a trained carer.
As of January 2025, he helps Fiona “brush her teeth and shower”, dress herself, eat and drink.
On difficult days where Fiona has experienced moments of “extreme confusion”, Martin shared that she has demanded to see her late parents.
In the memoir, the former GMTV host detailed her own challenges in accepting the diagnosis and the deterioration that lay ahead of her.
She said she finds discussing her life now “agonizingly 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.
The former TV presenter likened 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 sharing the diagnosis with friends and family to explain any “unusual behaviour”, which wasn’t something Fiona thought she exhibited.
“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, Martin announced he would be stepping down as editor of ITV’s This Morning in order to support his wife, after more than a decade of service.
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, Fiona, who lost her mother to Alzheimer’s aged 74 in 2006, previously shared her concerns about how people will ‘perceive’ her.
She said: “There is still an issue with this disease that the public thinks of old people, bending over a stick, talking to themselves.
“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.
