Fiona Phillips’ heartbreaking journey with early-onset Alzheimer’s has taken a devastating turn, as her husband Martin Frizell reveals she no longer recognises their son and has become increasingly confused during simple moments.
The former This Morning editor opened up in a deeply emotional interview on Newsnight, sharing the daily reality of caring for his wife since her diagnosis in 2022. “I used to say there were good days and bad days,” he admitted. “Now, it’s just bad or wretched. Wretched is the word I use now.”
Martin described a distressing car ride where he was taking Fiona, now 63, to the hospital due to unexplained pain. During that short journey, she asked him, “Where are we going?”—an astonishing 72 times. “She didn’t know where she was, and I had to keep reminding her we were going to the doctor,” he said.
Sadly, Fiona’s condition has declined to the point where she sometimes fails to recognise even close family members, including their children. Martin revealed, “She still looks like herself, the way viewers remember her on TV. So people come up to her and say hello. But she doesn’t understand what’s happening. It’s distressing.”
Making a devastating confession, Martin said he wished Fiona had been diagnosed with cancer instead of Alzheimer’s. “My mum and dad both had cancer—I know what that journey looks like. With Alzheimer’s, there’s no chance of remission. There’s no slowing it down. I don’t think Fiona will ever sip a glass of wine again, or walk a beach, or go to the theatre.”
Fiona and Martin, who married in 1997 and have two sons, are now facing the brutal reality of her disease together. Martin fears that when the end comes, “she might not even know who we are.”
This week, Fiona’s memoir Remember When: My Life with Alzheimer’s is released. Co-written with journalist Alison Phillips and husband Martin, the book details the slow and painful progress of the illness, the emotional toll on caregivers, and Fiona’s brave attempt to document her fading memories.
