TV’s Fiona Phillips says she hid her heartbreaking Alzheimer’s diagnosis from her two sons for months because she ‘didn’t want to make a big thing out of it’ – and reveals neither of her children have inherited the disease
- Fiona Phillips was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after suffering from brain fog
- She has previously talked openly about her parents’ struggle with the illness
Fiona Phillips hid her Alzheimer’s diagnosis from her two sons for months because she ‘didn’t want to make a big thing out of it’, she has revealed.
The former breakfast TV host, 62, was diagnosed with the devastating dementia disease, which killed both her parents, around a year ago, having suffered from months of brain fog and anxiety.
She only recently told her sons Nat, 24, and Mackenzie, 21, of her diagnosis, despite having displayed symptoms of ‘crippling anxiety’, ‘confusion’ and ‘brain fog’ since the end of 2021.
Ms Phillips said: ‘I just didn’t want to make a big thing out of it where we all sit down as a family and announce we’ve got something to tell them. And I was worried they might be embarrassed in front of their friends or treat me in a different way. And it’s not like I’m doing anything out of character.’
The former GMTV presenter and her husband, This Morning editor Martin Frizell, 64, had their sons get blood tests to see if they inherited the disease. The couple wanted the to prepare the boys if they needed to ‘make some difficult decisions later in life’.
Mr Frizell said it was a ‘huge moment’ when the test results came back negative, adding that their family felt ‘such an enormous sense of relief’.
Fiona Phillips hid her Alzheimer’s diagnosis from her two sons, Nat and Mackenzie, for months because she ‘didn’t want to make a big thing out of it’. She and her boys are pictured with Frank Lampard during a Chelsea Football Club charity event in 2009
The former former breakfast TV host and her husband had their sons get blood tests to see if they inherited the disease. The couple have revealed that neither boy did. Ms Phillips is pictured on This Morning in 2016
Ms Phillips has described her agony from being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after she last night revealed her battle against the disease, which ravaged her family, and vowed to fight on.
She told The Mirror that the disease was ‘something I might have thought I’d get at 80’ but not what she expected to be diagnosed with at just 61.
Ms Phillips said the diagnosis left her feeling ‘more angry than anything else’ because of the impact it already had on ‘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 shared. ‘This disease has ravaged my family and now it has come for me. And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking.’
It is understood she is undergoing a potentially revolutionary trial with a new drug which is hoped will slow or even reverse the illness for millions of people.
The former breakfast TV host insisted she is ‘still here’ and hopes she can help find a cure ‘which might make things better for others in the future’.
Ms Phillips is currently being supported by her husband, Mr Frizell, 64, who she married in 1997.
Journalist and broadcaster Fiona Phillips has announced she is suffering from Alzheimer’s at the age of just 62
Fiona Williams pictured with her father, Neville, who died from the disease in 2012
Ms Phillips told the Mirror she had received the news of the devastating dementia disease around a year ago.
She and Mr Frizell explained how Ms Phillips originally saw the onset of severe anxiety, which she believed was related to the menopause.
But after symptoms such as brain fog continued despite the use of HRT, she went for further testing which ultimately ended in diagnosis with Alzheimer’s.
Describing the moment she was diagnosed, Ms Phillips said it was a ‘total shock’, while Mr Frizell said he ‘felt sick’. The couple went for a drink at a nearby bar, where they are now regulars.
The former GMTV host said the diagnosis was ‘heartbreaking’, continuing: ‘It’s a b****y horrible’ secret to share.
She is now taking part in a drug trial, Miridesap, at University College Hospital in London – but with half the participants receiving a placebo, it is impossible to know whether she is actually being given the drug.
Her husband said he believes her condition is ‘stabilising’, but admitted this could be ‘wishful thinking’.
Elsewhere, the family is trying to keep things as normal as possible. But the changes Ms Phillips is experiencing have led to significant shifts in some ways.
She said she would no longer use transport such as the Tube as it would cause her too much anxiety. She is unable to drive and also has short memory lapses.
Ms Phillips has previously spoken about the deaths of both her parents from Alzheimer’s. Her father Neville died in February 2012, while her mother Amy passed away with the disease in May 2006.
Alzheimer’s also killed her mother Amy in 2006, after she began experiencing symptoms in her early 50s
Fiona Phillips pictured with husband Martin Frizell, who she married in 1997
Ms Phillips presented GMTV for more than a decade before leaving the show (pictured: Ms Phillips alongside Eamonn Holmes)
What is Alzheimer’s and how is it treated?
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.
This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink.
More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it.
WHAT HAPPENS?
As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost.
That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason.
The progress of the disease is slow and gradual.
On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years.
EARLY SYMPTOMS:
- Loss of short-term memory
- Disorientation
- Behavioral changes
- Mood swings
- Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call
LATER SYMPTOMS:
- Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places
- Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior
- Eventually lose ability to walk
- May have problems eating
- The majority will eventually need 24-hour care
HOW IT IS TREATED?
There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
However, some treatments are available that help alleviate some of the symptoms.
One of these is Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors which helps brain cells communicate to one another.
Another is menantine which works by blocking a chemical called glutamate that can build-up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease inhibiting mental function.
As the disease progresses Alzheimer’s patients can start displaying aggressive behaviour and/or may suffer from depression. Drugs can be provided to help mitigate these symptoms.
Other non-pharmaceutical treatments like mental training to improve memory helping combat the one aspect of Alzheimer’s disease is also recommended.
Source: Alzheimer’s Association and the NHS
Ms Phillips has frequently spoken out about the disease and campaigned for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Speaking on This Morning in 2016, she told how her mother began developing early onset symptoms as young as 53, before eventually dying at the age of 74.
Her father developed symptoms in his 60s and moved into a ‘warden-assisted’ flat, before being transferred to a psychiatric hospital shortly before his death at 76.
Speaking of the moment she started to realise her mother had the condition, she said: ‘I noticed mum’s Alzheimer’s at Christmas. She was really cold, there was no food in the house, she’d have the Christmas tree up in November so it was very unusual.’
As her father realised what was happening, she discussed his devastation: ‘Dad was beside himself and little did we know he had it too. Bizarre presents, my brother had an orange ladies jumper.’
When his father was diagnosed six years later, it was after he was arrested by the police for driving ‘erratically’.
She described the impact on the family: ‘You can’t do enough, I love my brother but resentment comes in, families are blown apart by it… It can happen to anyone – my mum was only in her 50s.’
Ms Phillips has also previously talked about her fears that she, too, would develop Alzheimer’s.
She said in 2017: ‘I need to sort out an action plan that can be used if I ‘disappear’… Of course I fear inheriting the disease with my family history, and I sometimes wake up in the night feeling anxious and worried about it.
‘My parents were relatively young when they got it; my mum was in her early 50s, although at the time, we just put it down to her being eccentric.’
She also spoke of her parents decline, saying: ‘It was heartbreaking. The end is slow and undignified.’
And in 2019, she wrote a candid column in the same newspaper in which she discussed her feelings of guilt and sadness.
She wrote: ‘I feel I never did enough for my mum and dad. I couldn’t.’
She added: ‘You can never do enough for a loved one with dementia. It’s a cruel disease with no cure, and days have no end.
‘I will never feel I did enough. That’s why I often tear up when people tell me how lucky my parents were to have me. The guilt never goes away.’
Ms Phillips began her journalistic career working as a reporter for local radio stations such as Radio Mercury un Sussex and County Sound in Surrey.
Her big break came when she moved to GMTV as an entertainment correspondent in 1993, before being promoted to be their LA correspondent in December the same year.
She then fronted the breakfast show from 1997 to 2008, being the main anchor every Monday to Wednesday.
Ms Phillips announced in 2008 she would be leaving the show for family reasons, presenting her last show in December.
This followed the death of her mother, and came after her father had also been diagnosed with the disease.
After her father’s death, the journalist revealed she was left ‘angry’ at his care, and even referred to it as ‘manslaughter’. His rapid deterioration led her to question whether the drugs cost him years of his life.
She said at the time: ‘I am so angry at the way my lovely, lovely dad was treated at the end. In his final weeks he was so coshed by drugs that his poor body couldn’t cope.
‘They robbed him of his laughter, then his smile, which was all that he had got left, and I am absolutely furious about that. Then they robbed him of his life.
‘Maybe I’m being selfish because he wouldn’t have wanted to continue to be dependent on others.
‘But that wasn’t a decision to be made by the medical system on his behalf … Without those drugs he could still have been healthy and happy, even with dementia.’
Fiona Phillips took part in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2005
Ms Phillips hopes that the trial she is partaking in will help those who are diagnosed in the years to come
Treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s has improved in recent years, and Ms Phillips hopes that the trial she is partaking in will help those who are diagnosed in the years to come.
Despite saying goodbye to her regular slot on GMTV in 2008, Ms Phillips has frequently appeared on the network since, most famously when guest presenting Lorraine.
She has also appeared on Loose Women and reports for the BBC’s Watchdog.
She has been writing a regular column for the Daily Mirror for 20 years, and has previously discussed her family’s history of the disease in the paper.
Her fans also know her for appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2005.
Ms Phillips has been a long-standing supporter of charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. In 2013 she attended ICAP Charity Day with the charity, joining brokers on the trading floor to raise funds for vital dementia research.
In 2016, she appeared on This Morning in support of the charity, and in 2018 she spoke candidly about her family experience of dementia at the charity’s House of Lords reception celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first grant given by Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Hilary Evans, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘We’re sending our love and support to Fiona and her family following her announcement that she’s living with Alzheimer’s disease.
‘It takes such courage to go public with a diagnosis and Fiona knows better than most just how much good that can do. Awareness is vital and Fiona’s bravery will help untold people who are going through their own dementia journeys.
‘Fiona’s been a friend of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s for well over a decade, and her support has shone such a valuable spotlight on the importance of research in overcoming the diseases that cause dementia.
‘There are around 70,800 people with dementia in the UK who, like Fiona, are under 65 and we’re determined to find a cure to end the heartbreak it causes. And we’re so grateful to Fiona for standing with us in our mission.’
On hearing the news of Ms Phillips’ diagnosis, Kate Lee, Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Society, added: ‘Our thoughts are with our Ambassador Fiona Phillips and her family following the announcement that she’s living with dementia.
‘Fiona has frequently spoken out about her parents’ experiences of dementia, and her support of Alzheimer’s Society has been hugely impactful and greatly appreciated.
‘Sharing such personal news publicly raises much needed awareness of dementia and we are extremely grateful to Fiona.
‘We are here to offer our support to Fiona and her family and to everyone affected by dementia, through our website alzheimers.org.uk and dementia support line on 0333 150 3456.’
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