Fiona Phillips smiles in rare photo as husband calls on Burnham for Alzheimer's support

A former GMTV presenter, Phillips, 65, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2022 after suffering from brain fog and anxiety that she’d initially believed to be part of the menopause.Since then, Phillips’s condition has worsened, with her TV boss husband Martin Frizell stepping down from his long-standing role running This Morning in December 2024 to support his wife.But on Wednesday (29 July), Frizell shared a rare photo of his wife at breakfast, with the presenter smiling in her kitchen while holding a spoon.Martin Frizell shared a rare photo of his wife, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years agoMartin Frizell/InstagramFrizell, who has been married to Phillips for 29 years, used the post to call on prime minister Andy Burnham to follow through on his pledge to end the care crisis for sufferers of the degenerative condition.“Fiona at breakfast today,” Frizell wrote. ”At one point she was going to work with Andy Burnham as Health Secretary when Gordon Brown asked her to become a health minister in his government.”Earlier on Wednesday (29 July), Burnham, whose father Kenneth has Alzheimer’s, promised to reform social care in the UK and help “my dad and the millions like him”.Frizell continued: “If the new Prime Minister, who knows what Alzheimer’s can do from his father’s experience, follows through on making a difference to sufferers like Fiona, his dad and millions of others then he will become the most consequential politician of his generation.“For decades no-one listened, dementia became the poor relation to cancer and yet it’s our biggest killer. Sadly it’s taken someone touched by dementia to take it seriously but how will we afford to treat it properly? Who knows but when your family life is altered forever by a dementia diagnosis you won’t be quibbling about one or two per cent extra you’ve contributed to provide to a proper care system.”Frizell wrote: “If in doubt, spend a day with an Alzheimer’s family and you’ll see why there’s so much hope riding on Andy Burnham and Louise Casey. It cheered up our morning.”Phillips first shared her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2023, one year before Frizell would leave This Morning as he stated that he was “expecting [his] family priorities to change”. The couple live with their two adult sons, Nathaniel and Mackenzie.In February, Frizell provided an update on his wife’s condition, saying that she was “slipping away” due to the incurable condition and could no longer remember major events such as Christmas, New Year or Valentine’s Day.Read More“It’s wretched; not just for her but for the family as well,” he said, during an appearance on Lorraine. “She’s still there, but day by day, we can see it slipping away.”“Just to sit there and see this person who was, as you know, the most dynamic, bubbly, and had so much pride in how she dressed and what she did, it’s just a loss of dignity.”