Martin Frizell has delivered an emotional and deeply personal update on his wife, broadcaster Fiona Phillips, describing her Alzheimer’s battle as “wretched” and admitting he is fighting his own “slip into depression” as he watches her condition deteriorate.
Appearing on Lorraine with host Lorraine Kelly, the former This Morning editor, 67, shared a new photo of Fiona taken just a day earlier and opened up about the devastating reality of life four years after her diagnosis.
“She doesn’t remember Valentine’s Day, she doesn’t remember Christmas now, she doesn’t remember New Year’s,” Martin said quietly. “It’s wretched… not just for her but for the family as well.”
Fiona, now 65, was just 61 when she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s — a progressive and incurable brain disorder that affects memory, thinking and behaviour. Once known for her dynamic energy and impeccable style, Martin said watching her change has been agonising.
“She’s still there, but day by day, we can see it slipping away,” he explained. “To sit there and see this person who was the most dynamic, bubbly, and had so much pride in how she dressed and what she did — it’s just a loss of dignity.”
In a rare admission about his own mental health, Martin confessed that caring for Fiona has taken a toll. “People ask, ‘Are you okay?’ and I used to say, ‘It’s not me, don’t worry about me,’” he said. “But I am conscious that I’ve never been a depressive person — and I can slip into that.”
He revealed that returning to broadcasting and podcasting has become his “respite,” though guilt often follows. “I still feel guilty. I feel guilty being here,” he admitted, referencing time spent away from Fiona.
Yet amid the heartbreak, Martin was determined to show that Fiona is still fighting. “I don’t want to give the impression she’s some sort of basket case. She’s very much with us. She’s still the world’s most stubborn woman — and she’s still around the house.”
Music remains one of the ways they connect. The couple often play songs by Rod Stewart, whom Fiona once interviewed and befriended. “He called her Doris,” Martin smiled, adding that she can still recognise countless tunes and would be a serious contender on Rochelle and Marvin Humes’ quiz show, The Hit List.
However, Martin did not hold back when it came to criticising the government. He questioned why more has not been done to fund research into Alzheimer’s and dementia, directly calling out Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
“Since I last spoke about her book, nobody has spoken about Alzheimer’s. Wes Streeting — where is he on this? There’s been nothing,” he said.
He criticised the decision to scrap diagnosis targets and pointed to the stark funding gap between dementia and cancer research. “Cancer sometimes gets ten times as much funding as Alzheimer’s and dementia,” Martin argued. “When she was first diagnosed she was put on the same medicine as her mum 20 years ago. There are new American drugs but they won’t pay for it due to ‘cost benefit analysis’.”
In Fiona’s memoir, Remember When, which Martin helped her write, he also shared one of the hardest lessons he has learned: never argue with someone living with dementia.
“What am I supposed to say when she says, ‘You’re not my husband!’?” he wrote. “Obviously it’s not nice — but I don’t feel hurt by it because I know that isn’t Fiona talking. It’s the illness that has taken her mind.”
He explained that experts advise never to say “no” or challenge a dementia patient. “The textbooks say never argue with a dementia patient. Although, even before the illness you could never win an argument with Fiona — so we play along,” he said with bittersweet humour.
The couple live with their sons, Nathaniel and Mackenzie, who help navigate Fiona’s distressing delusions. In one particularly painful example, Martin described walking around the block with Fiona as she loudly declared, “I’ll never forgive you for tricking me,” before returning home where she greeted their son as though she hadn’t seen him in days.
Despite sensing something was wrong before the diagnosis, Martin admitted that when confirmation came, it was “awful.”
“You realise there are around 70,000 people who have early-onset Alzheimer’s and there is not a lot of help out there,” he said. “As a family we are just kind of left to get through it… you become kind of invisible.”
And perhaps most heartbreakingly, he added: “If you mention the word Alzheimer’s or dementia, it brings it to the front and it’s upsetting because she knows the way it’s going.”
