The GMTV star announced her diagnosis last year (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
In an announcement, Martin Frizell has announced that he is stepping down from his role as editor of ITV programme This Morning after a decade at the broadcaster.
The news comes a year after Martin’s wife, TV star Fiona Phillips, shared that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Fiona, now 63, is best-known for being one of the faces of GMTV, which she first started working on in the 1990s.
She met her now-husband Martin, 65, while she was on the programme, and the couple have now been married for almost 30 years.
Last year, Fiona opened up about her diagnosis, and the impact it’s had on the lives of her and her family.
When was Fiona Phillips diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease?
In July 2023, Fiona announced that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease aged 62.
Martin and Fiona have been married for almost three decades (Picture: Carl Fox/Rex/Shutterstock)
The journalist explained that she had received her diagnosis a year prior, as she explained that she was undergoing trials into a revolutionary treatment in the hopes of helping to find a cure.
‘I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future,’ she said at the time, having lost both of her parents to the ‘heartbreaking’ disease.
Fiona shared that she thought she might have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when she was 80, but at the time of her diagnosis she was only 61 years old.
Both of Fiona’s parents were also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex Features/Shutterstock)
‘I felt more angry than anything else because this disease has already impacted my life in so many ways; my poor mum was crippled with it, then my dad, my grandparents, my uncle. It just keeps coming back for us,’ she said.
According to Alzheimers.org.uk, when a person develops dementia before the age of 65, this is known as young-onset dementia.
What is early-onset Alzheimer’s disease?
Early-onset Alzheimer’s is also known as young-onset dementia or younger-onset Alzheimer’s. It is the label given to anyone who receives a diagnosis before they turn 65.
According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, an estimated 70,800 people with dementia in the UK have young onset, and Alzheimer’s disease accounts for around one in three cases of young onset dementia.
It is thought at least five in every 100 people with Alzheimer’s are under 65, however the figure may be higher.
According to the NHS, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s can begin with usually minor memory problems, but can develop into:
confusion, disorientation and getting lost in familiar places
difficulty planning or making decisions
problems with speech and language
problems moving around without assistance or performing self-care tasks
personality changes, such as becoming aggressive, demanding and suspicious of others
hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there) and delusions (believing things that are untrue)
low mood or anxiety
Young-onset dementia, also known as early-onset dementia, often has different symptoms, even when it is caused by the same disease as that in older people.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of early-onset dementia and according to Alzheimers.org.uk, affects around one in three younger people with dementia.
The disease is thought to develop when proteins build up in the brain to form structures called ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’. The formation of these structures causes brain cells to die and affects the brain’s ability to function.
What has Fiona said about her diagnosis?
When Fiona revealed her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, she admitted that she was ‘worried’ about how people would perceive her.
‘There is still an issue with this disease that the public thinks of old people, bending over a stick, talking to themselves,’ she said.
Fiona beamed when she was joined by her husband Martin on GMTV (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive)
‘But I’m still here, getting out and about, meeting friends for coffee, going for dinner with Martin, and walking every day.’
In an interview with The Mirror, the presenter outlined how ‘anxious’ she had felt that ‘people would be staring or whispering about me or would just write me off as a batty old woman’.
Emphasising how much support she had received, she added: ‘But there has been incredible kindness.
‘And so many people have told me about how Alzheimer’s has hit their families, as it has attacked mine, and somehow it just makes them feel a little bit less alone.’
In September 2023, Fiona opened up about the memory loss that she’d been experiencing, revealing how it impacted her while in the middle of a conversation.
‘It is just weird when it happens because I’m thinking, “why has my mouth stopped and I’m still thinking about the sentence”. It’s really weird,’ she stated.
What is Fiona best-known for on TV?
Fiona is best-known for being one of the faces of ITV’s morning programme GMTV Today, which she first began fronting in 1997 with Eamonn Holmes as a main anchor.
Eamonn and Fiona were the faces of GMTV from the late 1990s (Picture: ITV/Rex Features)
From the left, GMTV presenters John Stapleton, Lorraine Kelly, Fiona, Pemnny Smith, Eamonn and Anne Davies (Picture: ITV/Rex Features/Shutterstock)
She’d previously worked on the series as the entertainment correspondent, interviewing some of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Fiona stepped down from her role as main anchor in 2008, before returning two years later to guest present on GMTV with Lorraine.
The TV personality has also appeared on TV shows in her career including Loose Women as a regular panelist and a guest anchor, and Lorraine.
In 2005, she competed on Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancer Brendan Cole, with the pair eventually being eliminated in week four of the competition.
In addition to TV, Fiona has also worked in radio, presenting on Smooth Radio and Radio 5 Live in the late 2000s.
How long have Fiona and Martin been married and do they have children?
Fiona and Martin have been married since 1997, and the couple share two children together – Nat and Mackenzie.
When she announced her Alzheimer’s diagnosis publicly, she disclosed how her sons were supporting her through her ordeal.
Fiona and Martin have two children together (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
She told The Mirror in 2023: ‘The boys haven’t said much about it, but they are very sweet.
‘Mackenzie, who’s still living at home, just says things like, “Don’t worry about tidying up Mum, I’ll do that, you rest”.
‘I guess that’s his way of showing he cares. They are lovely boys.’
In November 2024, Martin announced that he was stepping down as editor of ITV’s flagship programme This Morning after a decade, saying that he expected his ‘family priorities to change’ in 2025.
‘I love my team at ITV and will miss them, and the thrill of live telly, but it’s an always on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week commitment, and I won’t be able to do both,’ he said in a statement.
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