Jon Snow’s wife, Dr Precious Lunga, has given an update on the Channel 4 News star’s health after he went public with his Alzheimer’s disease this month. Jon confessed he was diagnosed with the condition three years ago – but didn’t want to be “written off” when it came to his public life. Now Precious has opened up to Anita Rani on Woman’s Hour about her husband’s progress.

She explained: “He felt that when someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s you’re written off. And actually, it’s not as if you fall off a cliff. It’s a gradual degradation of the brain. It’s a disease and it takes time, it’s a gradual process, so it doesn’t mean you still can’t contribute in the world. And he still felt that he had so much to give. And that’s why he had so much to give.”

She continued: “After he retired, he went into a deep depression. He missed his colleagues and his work.

“That lasted for about six months. After that period, he began to develop symptoms. Depression can sometimes be a trigger for Alzheimer’s.”

Jon’s mum Joan also battled the condition for a decade before she died.

Precious explained earlier this month of her husband: “Friends kept asking me if Jon was alright and I would have to lie and say he's fine, but I knew he wasn’t.” She told the Daily Mail that he would tell her: “Nobody ever rings [me], I’m forgotten,” when in reality he had just forgotten about phone calls with friends.

Jon says he does not “feel disabled in any way” and sometimes “doubts whether he’s really got” the condition.