Donald Trump moved closer to a rematch with Joe Biden in November when he defeated Nikki Haley, his last rival for the Republican nomination, on Super Tuesday.

The former president, 77, dominated the biggest day of primaries. He won 11 states by 9:30 p.m., leaving the former South Carolina governor’s dreams of the White House hanging by a thread.

Trump quickly won overwhelming victories in the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Maine, Alabama, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado and Minnesota.

Haley is still clinging to a glimmer of hope in Vermont, where she is neck-and-neck with Trump with about half the votes counted.

Elsewhere, she didn’t come close as Trump, the runaway Republican frontrunner, headed full steam ahead into the November general election.

The results of Super Tuesday cemented his absolute control over the Republican Party and led to increasing calls for Haley to quit the race.

Meanwhile, Biden is making gains on the Democratic side as polls close across the country. He faces only token opposition for his party’s presidential nomination.

And Trump’s string of victories on Tuesday night will make it virtually impossible mathematically for Haley to catch the former president.

Tuesday’s elections will award more than a third of Republican delegates — and more than 70% of the number needed to secure the nomination.

Haley pledged to stay in the race until the Super Tuesday contests but has made no other promises, and her campaign has no public events planned on Tuesday or beyond.

She is at her home in South Carolina and will not make any public comments. Trump is expected to address supporters at Mar-a-Lago later Tuesday evening.

Biden will be kept informed of the election results by his staff throughout the night, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Both the Biden and Trump camps are preparing for a rematch, tooThe earliest nominations for his party are March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden.

But after Tuesday, the battle for the general election will effectively begin. Both men are ready.

“We have to beat Biden — he’s the worst president in history,” Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday.

“If we lose this election, you’re going to come back to Donald Trump,” Biden said on the DeDe in the Morning radio show in North Carolina. “The way he talks, the way he acted, the way he treated the African-American community, I think it’s a disgrace.”

However, voters appear unenthusiastic about a repeat of the 2020 election, which Biden won and Trump wrongly claimed victory. Polls show that a majority of voters wanted an option other than Biden or Trump.

So now each campaign will have to focus on rallying their supporters and convincing independent voters to come to the polls this November.

And the candidates will hit the road to make their case to the American people.

On Saturday, Biden and Trump will hold separate campaign events in Georgia, a critical battleground state. No interaction is expected from them.

Biden became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to win Georgia in 2020. Trump was convinced he had won the country and now faces federal and state charges over his efforts to overturn the results there.

By Tamara Prenn

Christian Horner may be breaching an obscure clause in Formula 1’s International Sporting Code after a series of inappropriate texts and photos appearing to be between the Red Bull team boss and a female employee were circulated anonymously on Thursday afternoon.

The FIA International Sporting Code contains a subsection of an article that refers to the moral responsibility that competitors have towards the organization, and explains that breaking their rules is ‘a punishable offence, whether (…) committed intentionally or negligently’.

Article 12.2.1f states that a competitor may be found in breach of the code for: ‘Any words, acts or writings which have caused moral damage or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more in the generally about the interests of motorsport and about the values ​​defended by the FIA’.

Should the FIA ​​want to launch its own investigation into the alleged texts and photos, the way Horner and Red Bull are leading the investigation, or the impact the media storm could have on the way the sport is viewed , whether the email brought F1 into disrepute could be investigated, with possible sanctions imposed.

Some of Horner’s colleagues were initially unhappy with the team’s parent company’s statement in clearing the team’s head on Wednesday, which insisted their KC-led investigation was “confidential.”

Neither the sport’s owners, Liberty Media, nor the FIA ​​have seen the 150-page report, and Mercedes’ team boss was among the first to call for more transparency about the investigation.

‘I believe that as we strive to be a global sport, on such crucial topics, there needs to be more transparency and I wonder what the position of the sport is?’ Wolff told reporters.

“We are competitors, we are a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not. But it’s more of a general reaction or action that we as a sport have to judge, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.

‘Are we talking with the right moral approach, with the values ​​based on the speculations that are out there?’

McLaren CEO Zak Brown reiterated his comments as he pleaded with the sport’s owners and organizers to “ensure that all racing teams and staff, drivers and everyone else involved in the sport operate in a way that we all live by.” ‘

In the wake of the circulating email, Horner insisted his “entire focus” was on the upcoming race weekend.

“I will not comment on anonymous speculation,” Horner said, “but I repeat: I have always denied the allegations.

“I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and cooperated fully with it every step of the way.

‘It was a thorough and fair investigation, carried out by an independent specialist lawyer, and it led to the dismissal of the complaint submitted.

‘I remain fully focused on the start of the season.’

A spokesperson for Red Bull GmbH called the development a “private matter” in a short statement.

“It is a private matter between Mr Horner and it would be inappropriate for Red Bull to comment on this,” their message read.

Barnaby Joyce is taking time off just weeks after he was filmed lying intoxicated on a public footpath slurring swear words into his phone.

The former deputy prime minister came under intense scrutiny earlier this month after a viral video emerged of him lying on a Canberra street late at night, which he later blamed on mixing alcohol with prescription drugs.

Ahead of a busy day of parliamentary sitting on Monday, Nationals leader David Littleproud said Joyce had taken a week off after urging the MP to take time off to deal with “personal matters”.

‘I take Barnaby at his word. He won’t be there this week. He has informed me that he will not be coming to Parliament,” Mr Littleproud said.

‘He has a week off, which we gave him together with his family.

‘I respect that. And I hope, I hope he went to church yesterday and all he had was altar wine.”

Mr Joyce said he was giving up alcohol for Lent.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joked that Joyce will not host his money party after announcing his engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon.

The 60-year-old Albanian got down on one knee on Valentine’s Day and has since been answering questions from the media about his marriage.

Speaking to Fox FM radio presenters in Melbourne, Mr Albanese quickly brushed aside the idea of ​​embattled Nationals Frontbencher Mr Joyce planning his money night.

“No mate, I want to stay vertical,” the Prime Minister said on Friday.

Mr Albanese had previously ruled out inviting Mr Joyce to the wedding, telling KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O on Wednesday that he was the only person on the list so far.

“Barnaby’s not invited… that’s very clear,” he said.

The Albanian government has taken a hit in the new polls since the revision of the third phase of tax cuts and the days after a crucial by-election.

Parliament will meet for the next four days before the by-election in the Melbourne seat of Dunkley following the death of Labor MP Peta Murphy takes place on Saturday – the first major electoral test of the year.

Two new polls show that despite the changes to tax cuts – which will be passed by parliament this week – the government has suffered a dip in the primaries.

The Newspoll for The Australian shows the government has failed to improve its overall position since December.

Labor’s primary vote trailed the Coalition by 36 to 33 percent, although the government maintained a four-point lead on the two-party preferential voting system, 52 to 48 percent, two points higher than in February polls.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said she knew the by-election would be tough but remained confident Labor candidate Jodie Belyea would sway voters.

“Midterm elections are tough and that’s why our candidate talks to voters every day about what’s important to them – and that’s the cost of living,” she said.

National frontbencher Barnaby Joyce declared that the high cost of living was ‘absolutely killing people’, arguing that recent border protection scandals would dampen Labour’s chances.

“(Voters) can’t afford what’s happening at the checkout, and they certainly can’t afford their energy prices,” he said.

‘Let’s see what the PvdA can do. They don’t deserve to win. Let’s put it this way: Let’s see what happens.’

The Newspoll results also showed Albanese gaining one point as ‘better prime minister’, from 46 to 47 percent, while Dutton remained steady at 35 percent. Another 18 percent were not committed.

Opinion polls conducted by the Resolve Political Monitor for the Nine newspapers showed that primary votes for Labor have fallen by one point since December from 35 to 34 percent, while the Coalition gained ground from 34 percent to 37 percent.

While Albanese was still seven points ahead of Dutton (39 to 32 percent) as preferred prime minister, the margin was also the lowest since Labor returned to power.

Barnaby Joyce has arrived back in Canberra after a video emerged of the Nationals MP sitting on a sidewalk in Canberra talking loudly on his mobile phone.

A video published by Daily Mail Australia on Friday showed the shadow cabinet member, 56, on the ground in inner Braddon after sitting on a planter and falling off late Wednesday night.

The former deputy prime minister could be heard mumbling on the phone as he lay flat on his back on the ground, including an outburst in which he said: 'dead f***ing c***'.

The video recorded on Lonsdale Street, which has since gone viral, has raised questions about the former deputy prime minister's suitability to sit on the opposition front bench.

Mr Joyce arrived in Parliament almost an hour after Question Time started on Monday, ahead of a meeting in the Nationals party room.

The Nationals MP said he admitted he had made a mistake.

“Look, I've clearly made a big mistake,” Mr Joyce told Seven's Sunrise program on Monday.

'There's no excuse for it.

“There's a reason… they say certain things happen to you when you drink (while on medication) and they were absolutely 100 percent right.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud said Mr Joyce had matters to work through but hoped he would return to work in the afternoon or later in the week – although the party meeting is scheduled for Monday.

“This is something he is deeply ashamed of,” Littleproud told Sky News.

'He has made it very clear that this is not normal behavior for him and that there are extenuating circumstances. Of course we will support him to ensure he gets everything he needs.”

Mr Littleproud had previously said he would speak to Mr Joyce about the behavior seen in the video, as well as his position on the opposition frontbench.

The government has called on the coalition to answer for Joyce's actions, with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher saying the situation was 'incredibly sad'.

“These things do nothing for the profession of politicians… it reaffirms, in the minds of people and the public, a negative association with politics, and I think that's a real shame,” she told ABC Radio.

'But personally I hope he gets the help he needs because it's a very unusual position for someone that age.'

Labor MP Tania Lawrence said the Nationals MP's behavior was shameful.

“We are an example to our community, young and old, representing Australia to the international dignitaries and visitors we meet every week,” she told parliament.

'We are in the spotlight and we have to act accordingly. If that doesn't work, we must also understand that there is not a single member here who is irreplaceable.'

Sources told Daily Mail Australia the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on the large potted plant while having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, 'rolled on the floor' and continued with his phone call.

Joyce later responded to the embarrassing clip, saying: 'If I had known there was someone with a camera I would have gotten up quicker.'

His father-in-law, Peter Campion, labeled the politician a 'shocker' because he was taking a course of medication.

'He's working on something. I know when it comes to medicine he is a shocker,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Vikki is always at him to take them, but he doesn't.

“He forgets to take them, forgets to stay the course of whatever he's on.”

Mr Campion defended Mr Joyce, saying his son-in-law had received devastating family news on the day of the incident.

'He has already lost a brother to cancer, you have to start with that. “He had very bad similar news, which is not for me to reveal, but of the same magnitude and which affected him deeply,” he said.

Meanwhile, Joyce's ex-wife and mother of his four adult daughters, Natalie Abberfield, told Daily Mail Australia on Monday: “I hope he's doing well.”

'I'm not going to say more. It's his private life. I'm not in his life anymore.'

A FITNESS fan has suffered an embarrassing moment at the gym that has brought back a new fear.

She was in complete shock after the awkward and painful weightlifting incident.

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Self-proclaimed “little brown gym rat” Sandhya (@sandfitness) documents her fitness and weight loss journey and shares her favorite exercises online.

In a TikTok videoshe shared an embarrassing moment she found herself in while lifting.

She filmed herself doing a few barbell hip thrusts, a compound exercise that works the glutes and hips with a weighted barbell across the hips.

Sandhya went up and down in a bridge motion before something unexpected happened.

“Today a new gym fear was unlocked,” the caption read.

Halfway through the clip, the pink wand pad broke off, leaving her in “immediate pain.”

Her face turned into a grimace and she quickly dropped and rolled the weight off of her.

At the end of the video, she turned to look at the camera and wrote in a caption that she was “in disbelief.”

She mentioned in the video's caption that she was “bruised” and didn't know how she “did this.”

Several viewers talked about her uncomfortable experience, and others wondered why she didn't have Velcro straps for safety reasons.

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I always attach my steering pad to the bar,” said one.

“I LOST THE TIRE,” Sandhya replied.

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“And that's why mine has Velcro to keep it in place,” wrote another.

“The same thing happened to me and I literally have a scar from it,” one woman said.

“THAT'S WHY I LOVE THOSE THAT CLOSE. I got bruised once and didn't leave for two weeks,” one TikTok user added.

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Russia launched its most intense air campaign of the war today, raining down rockets on Ukrainian cities including Kiev.

The overnight attacks came days after Ukraine struck a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia, in a major setback for the Russian navy.

It is seen as the most intense airstrike of the brutal and bloody war Putin unleashed 22 months ago.

One person was killed and eight were injured in Kharkiv, and seven others were injured in Kiev during Russia’s rocket attacks today, officials said.

A metro station used as a shelter in Ukraine’s capital was damaged, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Telegram’s Messenger app.

‘Explosions in Kiev. Air defense active. Stay in shelters,” Klitschko said in a message on Telegram. Klitschko later said that a warehouse was on fire.

Video released on social media appeared to show a massive explosion at a high-rise in the capital.

Sergiy Popko, head of Kiev’s military administration, said debris fell in two parts of the city and there was also a fire in a residential apartment complex.

Twenty-two Russian attacks were recorded in Kharkiv, damaging a hospital, residential buildings and an industrial facility, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in televised comments.

Drones and missiles hit at least five other Ukrainian cities today, including Lviv in the west and Odesa in the south, the city’s mayors and police said.

A high-rise building caught fire in Odesa’s southern port after being hit by debris from a downed drone, the city’s mayor said.

‘As a result of a new enemy attack, one of the high-rise buildings was damaged. The fire was extinguished immediately,” Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said on social media.

Ukraine’s Southern Command said fourteen attack drones were destroyed in the south of the country and no casualties were reported.

The attack and deliberate destruction were seen as revenge for Ukraine’s Storm Shadow Boxing Day missile attack in Crimea on the Novocherkassk large landing ship, which is believed to have killed at least 33 and injured dozens.

Ukraine was simultaneously attacked by Russian Kinzhal, Iskander, S-300, Kh-22 and Kh-32 missiles, with 18 strategic bombers and Iranian-supplied Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian sources.

According to some reports, Kalibr missiles were also used.

“We have never seen so many targets on our monitor at the same time,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said.

Andriy Yermak, head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said: “Dead people were killed today by Russian missiles, which were fired at civilian objects and residential buildings.

“The enemy’s attack continues.”

More than a dozen huge explosions were heard in Kiev.

One hit a tall tower, causing a huge explosion.

The Artem aviation production plant – which produces air-to-air guided missiles – appeared to be on fire, with black smoke coming from the factory.

“There is a fire on the territory of warehouses in Podilsk district,” the military administration of the city of Kiev said.

‘According to preliminary information, there are injuries. Information is being clarified.”

Some were buried under the rubble, it was reported.

“Emergency services are on their way to the scene.”

Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said: “There are currently five people injured in the capital.

‘In the Podolsk district, doctors treated two men on the spot.

“One victim was hospitalized in Svyatoshynsky district and two in Shevchenkivskyi.

“The explosion damaged the building of the Lukyanovskaya metro station. The station acts as a shelter.’

‘According to preliminary information, an apartment building in Lviv was hit. There are victims. A fire broke out in one of the city’s lyceums. Probably due to the fall of rocket debris,” the Lviv regional government said.

The Yavoriv military training area near the city was hit, it was reported.

In Dnipro, the Apollo shopping center was hit and fatalities were reported.

Mayor Borys Filatov said: “There are deaths and injuries as a result of the morning attack on Dnipro.”

Video showed a maternity hospital being hit.

In Kharkiv, rRegional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight were injured in the area.

‘As a result of the occupiers’ attacks on Kharkov, one person has been killed so far, a man of about 35 years old.

“Eight people were injured, doctors are providing assistance on the spot.”

In Odesa, debris from a kamikaze drone damaged a high-rise building.

“A fire broke out,” said the head of the Odesa regional administration, Oleg Kiper.

Information about the victims is being verified.

In Kharkov, resident Olena Kurylo, who was dubbed the ‘Face of War’ after her bloody image was flashed around the world at the start of the war in February 2022, said today: ‘None of us slept well in Kharkov in December and the region, but this was the worst night with more than 23 rockets and constant air strikes since 3am.

‘My daughter is in a shelter with her boyfriend, they just had time to pick up their cats and run there.

‘I hide in the basement of my house and read messages from friends from all over the country: Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Odesa…

“None of them slept, again and again they grabbed their children and elderly people and ran away.

‘I have experienced so many emotions in the past two years – from the hope that our [Russian] “Brothers” simply cannot do this to us, to shock and tears, to anger and now to hatred.

‘This cannot continue.

“They can’t just keep killing us in front of the rest of the world, as if this is something they have a right to do.

‘They do not! They have no right!

“Please hear us from beneath the missiles, from beneath their endless death drones, from beneath their shelling.”

Dawn French has revealed she was quitting her iconic sketch show French & Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer Saunders after a sketch left her ‘humiliated’.

The 66-year-old actress recalled how she became the butt of the joke in the 2008 scene with singer Anastacia, before “crying all the way home” and quitting the series after a decade.

In a new BBC documentary about the duo’s career, Dawn explained how the show’s costume designer ‘fell on her back laughing’ when the Vicar Of Dibley star dressed up as the American singer.

Saying, ‘I looked in the mirror and thought, “Yeah, this isn’t it, this isn’t what Anastacia looks like.” But instead of finding it funny, I just thought, “Oh, I don’t like it”‘.

Adding, “It felt like I had no control over the comedy. The joke was on me. There was no way I could control it.”

Jennifer, 65, heard the story for the first time and said:[I] I didn’t know it was so dramatic that you decided to end the whole act.”

Dawn continued, “I hated everything about the day and I said I would never do that again. I will never feel so humiliated again.’

“It could have just been hormonal, but I just hated it, and I’d never hated it before.”

Jennifer went on to say that their show ended on TV “long before the infamous skit where TV bosses ‘canceled everything’.”

Dawn brand Sketch shows a ‘game for young people’, while her friend said: ‘We thought about it carefully, no one really wants us anymore and the truth is you need a break’.

Written by and starring the duo, French and Saunders first aired in 1987 and saw them parody famous films including Titanic and The Exorcist.

It comes after Dawn revealed she was plotting a return to the small screen.

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Dawn said she hopes the show will air in late 2024 or early 2025, promising she will ‘fight to allow people to be as offensive as they want to be’.

She said: “Plans are in the works. I can’t tell you too much about it at the moment. But there will be a sitcom at the end of next year or early next year and I’ll be in that.’

Dawn spoke today about the state of comedy and recalled the struggle she and Jennifer had to get Absolutely Fabulous on screens.

She said, “I remember Jennifer [Saunders] and told me how hard it was to get Absolutely Fabulous off the ground because its characters smoked, drank, fell over and were complete eejits.

“But you know, it all seems so mild now… Let’s be inappropriate, let’s wear purple, let’s push the boundaries a little and laugh at ourselves when we get it a little wrong.”

When asked if comedy has become a bit too vanilla these days, Dawn replied: “No, because there’s everything there. There is everything for everyone. I would fight tooth and nail to let people be as offensive as they want.

‘Hate? No. I think we know when something creeps into completely unacceptable hate speech. I think we all know when that’s the case.

‘And of course it’s just not funny. Those are the facts. It’s just not funny to anyone except the person who thinks it, who usually loses their marbles.’

By Jimmy Briggs for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 10:03 PM EST, November 22, 2023 | Updated: 02:43 EST, November 23, 2023

The debate over the appropriateness of a possible marriage between Charles and Camilla raged back and forth throughout 2004.

Could a future head of the Church of England marry a divorcee – something that had caused so much trouble for the royal family in the 1930s?

Could a future king who had admitted adultery be allowed a second marriage by the Church?

According to author Tina Brown, spiritual opinion began to shift in favor of the speculated marriage in November.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, stated that this was the ‘natural thing’.

Yet, Brown writes, it seems to have been an “irritating social incident” rather than a canonical opinion that ultimately led Charles to propose.

The reason was the wedding between Edward Van Cutsem, son of family friends, and the daughter of the Duke of Westminster in Chester Cathedral.

Edward, a godson of Charles, had been a page boy at his marriage to Diana.

It was named association wedding of the year. with guests such as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Charles and Camilla and William and Harry.

“Charles and Camilla were informed of the seating arrangements the weekend before the wedding,” Brown writes in her best-selling book The Palace Papers.

‘The arrangements showed that Mrs Parker Bowles was relegated to the social margins of the event.’

Camilla, she writes, had expected to sit directly behind Charles, who would be at the front with the queen and Philip.

‘But no, that ‘Dutch Cow’ as Camilla reportedly called it [mother of the groom] Emilie Van Cutsem had locked her on the other side of the cathedral, with the bride’s friends in the back, and told her she could not enter or leave through the main entrance.’

A courtier told the Daily Mail at the time that this had ‘sent Camilla over the edge’.

Ms Van Cutsem claimed she was adhering to protocol and refused to give Camilla an upgrade – and Camilla, Brown writes, ‘refused to be understanding’.

“She wouldn’t be humiliated in front of all of Charles’s snotty inner circle and, more importantly, the royal family.

‘The prince had to choose between attending the wedding without her or rejecting his best friends and his godson.

“It was Camilla’s line in the sand.”

Fortunately, a solution presented itself. On the day of the wedding, Charles had to visit Warminster barracks in Wiltshire to meet the families of Black Watch soldiers. Three members of the regiment had been killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

At this point Camilla’s 87-year-old father, Major Bruce Shand, comes into the story, according to royal biographer Penny Junor.

Writing in The Duchess: The Untold Story, says Junor

‘Although he loved the prince very much, he felt he was weak and worried about how vulnerable he had made Camilla by allowing her to live in limbo.

“He took the prince aside and said, ‘I want to meet my maker knowing that my daughter is all right.’

Charles listened and acknowledged what he had to say. It was, he admitted, a nonsensical and insulting position for Camilla, and one that others have also suggested she found deeply disturbing.

After all, without marriage she had no status – and Charles knew he had to make things right.

He asked Camilla to marry him that new year on bent knee.

I think it started with my shoelaces. About 18 months ago I started having trouble hanging them, and my favorite double Windsor tie knot also presented a challenge. It became clear that something was wrong. I started showing up for work early – sometimes several hours early – and not looking quite right.

At home in Hampshire, my wife Sally pre-tied my ties and buttoned my shirts so I could just slip one over my head in the morning after showering. Nevertheless, my colleagues at GB News often had to politely point out that I was very early, or that I didn’t look as smart as usual.

And after a professional life working with words, unusual mistakes crept in.

My kids pointed out spelling and word order errors in my emails or social media posts. My agent told me that they often joked around the office about how fussy I was, but now my spelling and grammar were all over the place.

Sally said the first time she knew something was wrong was when she asked me to reset our kitchen clock, but I couldn’t; I couldn’t imagine what the hands meant, and I could no longer look up and say it was ten past eleven.

At Christmas we decided as a family that I needed to see a GP. Some may be tempted to put on a brave face or convince themselves that they will get through it. In my opinion that is not brave or smart; it is delusional, even dangerous.

I told the doctor that I was concerned that I was developing early dementia. He said with professional candor that he didn’t know it at the moment, but that some people struggle with growing old, especially after living the exciting, challenging life I had, with half a century on the front lines of the television. news.

I didn’t feel old, I felt confused – not all there, as it were. My long-term memory, especially in the areas of news, politics and economics, remained – and remains – strong. I was still writing scripts well. But while my perspective and understanding were still crystal clear, it was difficult to ignore the other issues.

For example, if you told me you had coffee with milk but no sugar and I went to the kitchen to make it, I was unlikely to remember that formula when I got to the kettle (although, as my children noted, always been a bit sloppy).

The GP said the only way to be sure was an MRI scan, and sure enough, I then saw a consultant in June who got straight to the point: ‘You have had a series of minor (infarction) strokes resulting in vascular dementia.’

My immediate reaction was fear at those two words, strokes and dementia, although I remained super calm (while saying a rather strong expletive in my head).

Both Sal and I felt like we were in a scene from Emergency Ward 10 or Casualty. As someone who loves language and has made it my career, I cannot escape the fact that when a professional looks you in the eye and tells you you have dementia, it is a shock, no matter how prepared you are.

The good news, he said, was that I didn’t have Alzheimer’s. The bad news was that what I had was not curable.

However, there was a lot I could do to prevent it from getting worse and to adapt to it. High blood pressure is the key to my type of strokes, so not for the first time I was told to quit smoking and not drink too much (which I haven’t done in ages). I also need to exercise more and get more fresh air.

I had been smoking since I was a teenager, at worst up to forty a day, and I really wasn’t sure I could give it up. But thanks to the NHS Stop Smoking clinic, which provides prescription nicotine patches and a counselor who calls me once a week, I managed it and am quietly proud of myself.

In an era of long waiting lists and full appointment books, the NHS has served me exceptionally well. I see three consultants: a psychiatrist, a stroke specialist and a cardiologist, who are trying to find out why my blood pressure is so high.

Two other people have helped us enormously: a psychiatric nurse who suggested a whiteboard for the kitchen as a reminder – something many people without dementia find useful – and an occupational therapist sent by the stroke team who has been brilliant. .

We sit at the kitchen table and do spot-the-strange exercises, word searches and – what I find most difficult – looking at a jumble of shapes on a page and then trying to represent them in a drawing on the page. next page.

My oldest son Alex gave me a book of word searches and I religiously try to do one every day.

I hope these interventions slow the progression, and in fact my symptoms are much the same as when I was diagnosed in June. I certainly don’t feel like things have gotten worse, although they aren’t significantly better either.

What I have found most difficult to deal with is how the diagnosis has reduced Sal, the love of my life and mother of my children, to the role of caregiver. The one who double checks my shoes, my buttons, my diary.

It’s humiliating and soul-destroying, and she comes into it from a position of enormous caliber and talent. When I met her she was already established in TV production, while I was the entry-level intern at Southern TV in Southampton.

I know she’s doing all this out of love, but when you’re the one whose shoelaces need mending, that’s not an easy ask. It’s not an easy thank you either. It’s complicated. I find it difficult because I feel guilty.

She is truly a remarkable woman, a truly badass woman, and I know how lucky I am. We are an incredibly close, close-knit family.

My oldest children, Alex, 41, and Clemmie, 38, have been with me every step of the way on this medical journey, and I see a lot of our two younger sons, Freddie, 30, and Oscar, 25, who have a horse business on site.

Oscar’s triumphs as a show jumper continue to fill me with pride, and Freddie, his partner Laura and their son Jimmy, who is almost two, are frequent visitors.

Anyone who has been blessed to be a grandparent will understand me when I say that an hour with Jimmy is better than any drug or therapy.

We live on a farm and in addition to the horses, we have two donkeys, a Shetland pony called Nutkin, ducks, chickens, a cat and a turtle.

Part of my exercise routine now is to take our two dogs, Suki and Lily, for an afternoon walk — as long as I’m back for the news by 6 p.m.

And my poultry feeding run is a wonderfully therapeutic start to my day; when they have laid eggs, my mood soars.

What has made a world of difference to me is that I can still work. In early spring, I decided to retire from full-time frontline broadcasting. My schedule was tough: from sunrise to the end of the race, both Saturday and Sunday.

Everything was live and most of it was ad-libbed, which is taxing on anyone’s brain. My employers, GB News, could not have been more supportive. They have kept me on the books with a contributor contract, which has just been renewed.

I feel blessed to work at a company that sees the value I can provide, regardless of my condition, and is willing to make reasonable accommodations so I can continue working.

I hope to continue to repay this kindness, trust and loyalty in the coming months; If I wasn’t ready, I wouldn’t be on air, and rightly so. But I am, therefore I am.

Quite soon after my diagnosis I spoke at a political dinner for my friend Michael Gove and answered questions, which went well and confirmed that my condition was not affecting me in many areas of my ‘old life’.

In fact, people who meet me always say they would have no idea I have dementia (two consultants said the same thing after talking to me for five minutes).

I think it is important to remain visible, to show people that dementia is not an abyss. My short-term memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be, which is annoying, but not catastrophic.

Yes, I have dementia, but for me this is not the end of the road, I am 71 and still have a lot to give.

People sometimes ask if I’m afraid of what the future holds. I don’t, although maybe I should. I am certainly worried and concerned about the prospect of worsening.

But I have incredible faith in my family: whatever nature and medicine have to offer me, we will tackle it together. I feel so incredibly happy.

Friends have been very supportive and I enjoy being involved with charities such as Alzheimer’s Research UK, which funds studies into all forms of dementia and believes there is a cure even for my type.

Now that several months have passed since my diagnosis, I have had time to reflect and think more deeply.

What I want to shout from the rooftops is that if anyone reading this has any strange symptoms, please don’t ignore them.

Get help, listen to the experts and do what they advise. While it is true that there is no cure, there are very smart men and women working very hard on it.

There are things you can do today to begin the process of slowing your decline. Onwards and upwards – and watch this space!

This article appears in the November issue of Saga Magazine. To subscribe, visit checkout-magazine.saga.co.uk/D1023