Kate Garraway overcome with emotion as she discusses heartbreaking last conversation she had with Fiona Phillips-Aisha Nozari-Entertainment – Metro

Kate Garraway told GMB viewers on Thursday that she last spoke to Fiona Phillips ‘a few weeks ago’ (Picture: ITV / REX)

Kate Garraway discussed the last conversation she had with Fiona Phillips on Thursday’s Good Morning Britain.

Fiona, 62, revealed this week that she’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and speaking towards the end of the week 56-year-old Kate revealed Fiona had been asking about her husband Derek Draper, who fell seriously ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, which left him with long-lasting damage to his organs and needing 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 told she had the illness a year ago after suffering months of brain fog and anxiety.

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’ (Picture: ITV)

She is now undergoing trials as part of research into a revolutionary treatment being investigated by scientists.

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.’

Fiona, 62, revealed this week that she’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s (Picture: Getty)

Derek Draper fell seriously ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, which left him with long-lasting damage to his organs (Picture: PA)

‘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 with her as she gave the interview, agreeing that Fiona’s family has been ‘riddled with it’ and it was a ‘total shock’ for them both to have received the diagnosis at her age.

The GMTV host has chosen to share her diagnosis publicly now after keeping it to herself for 18 months, admitting it was a ‘horrible secret’.

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