Fiona Phillips’ husband says ‘I wish she had cancer’ in devastating Alzheimer’s admission

Martin Frizell has given an update on his wife Fiona Phillips, admitting he wishes she had cancer instead. The beloved Mirror columnist of 20 years and GMTV presenter was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2022 at the age of 61.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast today, Martin – who is the former editor on ITV show This Morning – said: “She doesn’t know what day it is, what her postcode is, what season it is – it’s watching that woman disappear gradually before your eyes.”

Martin said he struggles with his own guilt at leaving her. He said: “My family are going through enough. I feel guilty being here, subconsciously you feel you should be there all the time. I go to a café where there’s only an hour parking allowed so I don’t stay long. My respite is still working – and I’m working out for the seven nights how I can organise the care. Every second I’m away I feel guilty.”

Martin explained if Alzheimer’s is caught early, the person’s quality of life is better. Whilst he knows there isn’t a cure – and it was too late for Fiona now – he is campaigning for change to help others.

“I don’t particularly want to be here [talking about this],” Martin said but he is adamant he wants more support for Alzheimer’s. He said, in their book, he says he wishes Fiona would have had cancer – because the discourse around cancer is much more. Whilst he admitted the comment was there to turn heads, he said it was important to improve conversations. He called for the government to have a proper plan to deal with Alzheimer’s diagnosis and care like they do with cancer.

Giving an update on Fiona, Martin said: “She’s suffering from it. They have quite long memories, especially music. She listens to Rod Stewart and she remembered how she interviewed him. She knows the lyrics, the intros to it. She’ll forget she’s had dinner or lunch. She’s very much with us. She does always remember me – but am I Martin her husband or Martin a nice man helping me?” He also said that he joked with her about clocking off at 5pm if she thought he was just a nice carer.

Yesterday, Martin appeared on Lorraine where he gave a sad update on Fiona, but warned fans not to count her out.

“She doesn’t remember Christmas now, she doesn’t remember New Year… I don’t want to give the impression she’s some sort of basket case. She’s very much with us,” he said.

“She is still the world’s most stubborn women and still around the house. There’s a nice picture of her eating some chocolate; she’ll probably hate it because she thinks her hair colour should be a bit better.”

Martin is continuing to care for Fiona, which is why he stepped down from his full time job on This Morning. Speaking about taking time to care for himself, whilst he cares for Fiona – who is mum to their two children, he added: “I used to say it’s not me that needs to be asked if I’m ok, it’s not me that has the diagnosis. I’ve gone back to broadcasting, doing stuff ourselves and podcasting.

“I can free myself up for eight days in April to go on tour – I haven’t been away from home for more than three days in two years. I feel guilty being here and not with her.” Fiona’s diagnosis has been hard for them all.

He added: “Nothing changes in that respect but it’s wretched. I use the word wretched because I think it’s applicable to what we’re going through, not just for her, but family and the people around her as well.”

Martin finds it hard to be away from Fiona and things have only got increasingly difficult for them to go out. He had previously explained: “There’s no way I could drive or we could take public transport as Fiona now rarely understands where she is going or why, constantly asking what is happening, probably four or five times a minute on loop for the entire journey.

“Honestly, I got close to telling the taxi driver to turn around and take us home – Fiona’s only safe place – as the stress was unbearable. But of course that self-pity pales into insignificance compared to what Fiona was going through.”

Martin previously said Fiona thought he had kidnapped her because of “delusions” brought on by the illness. He explained: “She does recognise me most of the times. Doesn’t quite know that I’m her husband, but she knows who I am.

“On these occasions, and it’s not frequent, but every now and then, she’ll want to go home to her parents. I haven’t got the heart to say they aren’t here. What you do is, you say, ‘Let’s get our coats on, let’s get our shoes on’, we go up around the block a couple of times and come back in. And she says, ‘Oh, I’m home now.'”

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