British TV presenter Fiona Phillips has detailed the first symptoms she experienced before being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Phillips, 64, who previously fronted GMTV on ITV, has been open about her journey with Alzheimer’s since announcing her diagnosis in July 2023.
Now, two years later, she and her husband of 28 years, Martin Frizell, are sharing a deeper look into their lives in their new memoir, Remember When: My Life with Alzheimer’s.
The book aims to help others understand the reality of living with the disease and the brutal and human sides of it.
Early-onset Alzheimer’s, diagnosed before age 65, can cause memory loss that disrupts daily life, difficulty completing familiar tasks, and confusion with time or place, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
The TV presenter shared in a recent interview with Daily Mail that she initially blamed menopause for her symptoms.
“The anxiety attacks became more frequent until they were almost hourly," she recalled. "Around this time, 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."
“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,” she said.
Even simple tasks such as going to the bank were overwhelming for her. “There were mood swings too, which meant even I was finding my behavior unpredictable. And yet, despite not wanting to be like that, I couldn’t do anything about it. I felt I’d lost control over my life,” she added.
In the memoir, Phillips, who lost her mother to Alzheimer’s at 74 in 2006, admitted that discussing her current life is “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, comparing it to “trying to chase a £5 note that’s fallen out of your purse on a gusty day," cited by Metro.
She revealed that she had no awareness of the repetition or confusion others noticed. “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.
Frizell, 65, who stepped down as editor of ITV’s This Morning in November 2024 to support his wife, also shared an "honest" reflection in the memoir, admitting he wished she had been diagnosed with cancer instead.
“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,” he said.
“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, noting that after the diagnosis, you are “left to cope alone”.
Now, Frizell has taken on caring for his wife, explaining that as of January 2025, he helps her “brush her teeth and shower,” dress, and eat and drink.
At times, Phillips has demanded to see her late parents during moments of “extreme confusion,” Frizell shared.
Frizell also noted how he now manages day-to-day responsibilities from paying bills to household tasks he once “took for granted,” bringing in a trained carer to help support him and their 23-year-old son, MacKenzie.
Despite the challenges, Phillips continues to get out daily, telling The Mirror: “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 added.