Fiona Phillips has revealed her previous split from husband Martin Frizell when her Alzheimer’s disease was unknowingly starting to take its toll on her and her family.
The TV presenter, 64, has been married to the former This Morning editor, 66, since 1997. The pair are parents to two sons.
However, prior to Fiona’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Fiona and Martin secretly split – and Fiona has now opened up about the ordeal.
Fiona Phillips reveals previous split from husband
Fiona Phillips recently revealed she had previously separated from Martin for a brief period, amid work stresses and Fiona caring for her parents who also had Alzheimer’s,
What’s more, Fiona – in a first-person piece for the Mail on Sunday from her new book – said she started to become “more and more disconnected from Martin and the boys”.
I didn’t realise quite how seriously Martin felt about it all until one evening he announced he was moving out.
Now, Fiona is sure Alzheimer’s was “at least partly responsible” – but neither she nor Martin could see it at the time.
With their marriage coming under increasing strain, Fiona admitted that she “didn’t seem to have the energy for any of it any more”.
Fiona’s shock after Martin moved out
Things then took a heartbreaking turn though when Martin told her he was moving out.
Fiona said: “I didn’t realise quite how seriously Martin felt about it all until one evening he announced he was moving out. ‘Stop being so ridiculous!’ I yelled. ‘I’m just worn out. I’m tired – of everything.’
“‘That’s what you’ve been saying for years,’ he replied. ‘Maybe this – our marriage – is what’s making you so tired.'”
Fiona noted that she didn’t think the reason for her “feeling so down about everything” was to do with her relationship with Martin. However, it “was something else that I had no means of controlling”.
The TV star then admitted that she didn’t think Martin would leave her “completely”. Instead, she felt like he was “trying to shock me into behaving differently”.
And according to Fiona, “it worked” as despite the couple being “distant for months and months” Fiona missed Martin.
“And if I thought about what a future might be like without him, it just seemed bewildering. A sort of nothingness. I did spend time thinking about how I’d behaved towards him, not just in the past few months but over the years when I’d been so preoccupied with my parents and work. Not that I regretted that for a moment, but clearly it had taken its toll on our marriage.”
Fiona said she ‘still loved him’
Fiona – who revealed her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2023- then shared that in the third week of their “separation” she and Martin had started speaking via text and on the phone.
The pair then met up to try and rekindle things. Fiona revealed that despite the “arguments and the bickering and my moaning” she still loved him.
During their reunion at a hotel in Hampshire, Fiona and Martin talked things out, with Fiona revealing the evening was “difficult – but great”.
Confiding in one another, the pair revealed they wanted to make things work but Martin said “things have got to change” – in which Fiona agreed.
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