PRESENTER FIONA PHILLIPS HOSTS GMTV FOR FINAL TIME

PRESENTER FIONA PHILLIPS HOSTS GMTV FOR FINAL TIME

GMTV host Fiona Phillips has presented the ITV1 morning show for the final time after nearly 16 years on the programme.

The 47-year-old announced her decision to leave the breakfast broadcast earlier this year, citing a desire to spend more time with her family.

Phillips - who is married to the show's editor Martin Frizell - has two young sons and also wishes to spend more time with her elderly father.

He has Alzheimer's disease while her mother died two years ago after a battle with the illness.

She told the Sunday Times in September that leaving GMTV was "one of the hardest decisions I've ever made".

"I'm 47 and my mum was in her late fifties when she developed Alzheimer's, so I am very aware that I may have only 10 years left of life as I know it," she added.

"I must admit that it has contributed to my feeling of time flashing by. Why slog away getting up at 4am when you might not be able to look after your family in the way you want to later on?"

Phillips also admitted that her marriage to Frizell had been strained by the pressures of working together.

She joined the station in 1993 as an entertainment correspondent and spent two years as the show's Los Angeles reporter before becoming an anchor in 1996.