Just three years after her early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, a beloved British TV presenter – “a glamorous, glittering star” – is slowly being “wiped away” by the disease that first appeared with unexpected symptoms.
To the outside world, Fiona Phillips, 64, appeared to have it all – an impressive career, a loving husband, two sons, and a seemingly happy home.
But behind closed doors, her life was slowly unraveling.
Menopause?
Phillips’ world was completely shaken in 2022, when she learned that the “brain fog” and mood swings weren’t the result of menopause.
. “…Lots of women in the public eye, such as Davina McCall and Gabby Logan, were discussing the menopause in a way it had never previously been talked about. It felt like the pieces were falling into place – why hadn’t anyone told me before how debilitating the menopause could be?” The former GMTV host writes in a powerful new piece – an adaptation of her book “Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer’s” – published in the Daily Mail. “But I didn’t have the hot flushes that a lot of women complain about. For me it was the sense of brain fog and a sense of anxiety that I could rarely shake off.”
Early-onset Alzheimer’s
Phillips, at only 61, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, which according to the Alzheimer’s Society, affects people under the age of 65.
Johns Hopkins Medicine explains “the symptoms closely mirror those of other forms of Alzheimer’s disease,” and that “family history of the disease is the only known risk factor at this time.”
Family history
Phillips, a former guest presenter for ITV Breakfast, had seen Alzheimer’s up close – her mother and father had the cruel disease, and both died in 2008 and 2012, respectively.
“Was I worried that there might be something sinister lurking beneath the surface? That Alzheimer’s could one day be coming for me too? On one level I did think I would get the disease, but there was also another part of me that was in a strange sort of denial about it all.,” Phillips writes.
“Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Well, even if it does, it definitely doesn’t strike three times,” said the mother of two, adding that everyday things, like driving, going to the bank, or even shopping, “became terrifying.”
‘More disconnected’
For Phillips, the signs crept in quietly but destructively – confusion, memory lapses, and emotional distance that began to shake the very foundation of her relationship with Martin Frizell, 65, her husband of more than 30 years.
“I’m sure the disease was at least partly responsible, but at the time neither of us could see it. I just became more and more disconnected from Martin and the boys,” Phillips explained. “’You’ve totally zoned out of our family and our marriage,’ he would say to me. ‘Don’t be so bloody ridiculous!’ I’d yell back.”
The miscommunication, emotional distance, and intensifying arguments eventually drove Frizell to pack his bags. He walked out of the family home – heartbroken, confused, and desperate for a reaction.
Phillips said she didn’t believe it was truly the end and thought her husband was just trying to shake her into seeing what she was becoming.
But, at the time, she was already deep in the grip of a disease she didn’t know she had.
‘Why me?’
Their separation only lasted a handful of weeks, and the couple worked with a doctor to find some answers.
When she finally received her diagnosis, both her and Frizell were “too shellshocked to speak much.”
“I know you’re not supposed to ask, ‘Why me?’ – and I’ve never been a moaner – but seriously, this time, ‘Why me?’ What had I done so wrong to deserve this?” Phillips writes.
And now that the pair knows why her personality shifted so much, her husband said he’s committed to giving her “the best care” to “make her feel as safe and secure as possible.”
‘Cancer instead’
In a brutally honest moment, Frizell confessed that he wished “Fiona had contracted cancer instead.”
“It’s a shocking thing to say, but at least then she might have had a chance of a cure,” the TV editor writes in the book, shared in a separate article in the Daily Mail.
Frizell said the disease has already progressed considerably and that his wife is “frequently transported back to her safe space, her teenage bedroom in Southampton.”
“She is frustrated every single day. And depressed…She tries to fight it, but it’s too hard,” Frizell said of the stranglehold Alzheimer’s has on Phillips.
Today, he helps her bathe, dress, brush her teeth – simple things she can do physically, “but is unable now to think about how she should do them.”
“Bit by bit, it takes everything. Through time, even the most glamorous, glittering star – such as Fiona was – will be wiped away.”
The doting husband, who’s oftentimes forgotten by Phillips, adds, “I miss her. I miss my wife.”
Phillip’s story is not just a celebrity confession – it’s a warning. Too often, symptoms are dismissed or misattributed.
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