On Thursday’s Good Morning Britain, Kate Garraway addressed her most recent talk with Fiona Phillips.
Fiona, 62, confirmed last week that she had Alzheimer’s disease, and speaking towards the end of the week, 56-year-old Kate claimed Fiona had inquired about her husband Derek Draper, who became very ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, leaving him with long-term organ damage and requiring daily care the last time they spoke.
Explaining that ‘it makes her emotional’, Kate said: ‘The last conversation I had with her, which was only a few weeks ago, what she was doing was talking to me about Derek – full of love for Derek, very close to Derek – and thinking about me dealing with Derek.’
She added: ‘Of course, I now think that she must have had in her mind that she would come to a place where Martin and her sons were going to be taking care of her.
‘It makes me feel emotional thinking about [how] that must have been going through her mind and still is.’
Fiona was diagnosed with the condition a year ago after experiencing months of mental fog and anxiety.
She is presently undergoing trials as part of a scientific investigation into a breakthrough cure.
Confirming her ‘heartbreaking’ diagnosis to The Mirror, columnist Fiona said the disease has ‘ravaged’ her family and has now ‘come for’ her, having previously lost both of her parents to Alzheimer’s.
‘And all over the country there are people of all different ages whose lives are being affected by it – it’s heartbreaking,’ she said.
‘I just hope I can help find a cure which might make things better for others in the future.’
‘It’s something I might have thought I’d get at 80. But I was still only 61 years old,’ she added.
The former breakfast TV host continued: ‘I felt more angry than anything else because this disease has already impacted 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.’
Fiona’s husband, TV’s This Morning editor Martin Frizell, 64, was beside her during the interview, agreed that Fiona’s family has been ‘ridden with it’ and that receiving the diagnosis at her age was a ‘huge shock’ for them both.
After keeping her illness a ‘terrible secret’ for 18 months, the GMTV host has opted to discuss it publicly now.
Source My Celebrity Life.
