Alison Hammond 'devastated' as she breaks silence on This Morning colleague's sad reason for exit

This Morning's Alison Hammond said she was 'absolutely devastated' after the boss of the show announced he was leaving yesterday. The Brummie presenter supported Martin Frizell, 65, after it was announced he was leaving his position of editor of the ITV show to help his family.

His wife, TV star Fiona Phillips, announced she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year at age 62. Alison credited Martin with her career and said staff members were gutted he was leaving, but 'totally understood' that he had to leave 'for family reasons'.

Speaking on Chris Evans' Virgin Radio show, Alison said: "I've worked with Martin for 10 years. I'll be honest with you I'm absolutely devastated. He's been a real rock for the show.

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"But it's totally understandable why he's leaving. You all know about his wife (Fiona Phillip's). We get why he's leaving, it's very amicable. He doesn't want to leave but he has to for family reasons. We all understand that."

She added: "He's the one who got me back on TV. He said 'Alison's really good why don't we use her'. So if it wasn't for him you wouldn't see Alison Hammond so we owe him a lot, we owe him Alison Hammond. He is the man who got me back on TV, because there was a time that I wasn't, in about 2007.

"I started on This Morning and they weren't using me then Martin came on board and he was like 'why are we not using Alison Hammond'. He was the guy who made me the girl. So I'm really thankful to him. He's a wonderful man. He'll be sadly missed. We are all talking about it. Everyone is gutted, we all received an email yesterday. I've sent him a little message. He's upset. It's an emotional situation. He is very emotional."

Martin announced his departure by saying: "Next year I'm expecting my family priorities to change so I need to free up time for them. I love my team at ITV and will miss them and the thrill of live telly but it's an always on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week commitment and I won't be able to do both."

He then added: "It's been a privilege to lead truly great presenters and producers, between us we've turned out more than six thousand hours of live topical telly, that's around 20,000 items and whilst the gongs are always nice. I'm most proud of the change we made to so many lives, even saving a fair few with our campaigns on anti suicide, menopause, testicular cancer and 'how - to' items."