Soap icon devastated over mum’s cancer death – ‘I’ll never get over it’

After losing her mother 12 years ago, Davinia Taylor couldn’t bear the thought of dying young and leaving her four sons early, so she transformed her diet and lifestyle to ensure she’ll be healthy for decades to come

Ten years ago, Davinia Taylor felt old before her time. “Bearing in mind I hadn’t drunk for five years, I felt hungover, sluggish, I had no self-esteem and no get-up-and-go,” she says. “Life was like walking through quicksand.”

So the Hollyoaks actress changed her diet and lifestyle, dramatically transforming her physical and mental wellbeing, which, in turn, sparked a passion for health and wellness that inspired her 2021 book It’s Not A Diet and Hack Your Hormones in 2023.

And the results are startling. Davinia, now 47, has discovered – thanks to a GlycanAge blood test that identifies chronic inflammation – that she has a biological age of 20. “I feel better than I ever did in my teens, twenties or thirties,” she says. “Internally, you could be ageing ferociously and you don’t even know it.”

In fact, she reports that the average woman in England and Wales spends 23% of her life in poor health. That’s the statistic that prompted her shift of focus towards the idea of “healthspan” – the number of years we spend in good health – rather than just lifespan.

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“Research shows only 25% of differences in lifespan is down to genetics. The rest is down to what we do,” she says.

Already a wellness entrepreneur with her own supplements brand, WillPowders, Davinia has now done a deep dive into the world of health longevity and the result is Futureproof: Build Resilience, Feel Younger, Live Longer, which distils extensive in-depth research into a game-changing, accessible wellbeing bible that she hopes can help women everywhere.

Davinia may seem like an unlikely health guru. A former party girl who was part of the 90s Primrose Hill set, she socialised with Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, and married first husband Dave Gardner, David Beckham’s best friend.

Life looks very different today. Happily wed to builder Matthew Leyden, she has four sons aged nine to 17. Davinia has been sober for 16 years and practises what she preaches, following the science to stay fit, healthy and active for as long as she possibly can.

And it’s clearly working – she glows with health and has an enviable line-free complexion that is testament to her lifestyle. But while many are motivated by vanity, Davinia is driven by something more profound – her mother’s death from cancer at the age of 60.

“That was 12 years ago and it’s still too much for me to deal with,” she says. “I’ll never get over it. And I’m coming up to my 50th. If I think about my boys going through losing me, not having a grandmother for their children and everything I’d miss out on… suddenly mortality is very much on my radar.”

One of Davinia’s key discoveries was that her supposedly “healthy” low-fat diet was having a disastrous impact on her wellbeing. “After my mum passed away, I didn’t realise that I was eating unhealthily. I was eating five or six portions of wholegrains a day, a low-fat diet and not much meat.”

But she felt hopelessly lethargic. “If I was going to the supermarket, I’d always park in the mother-and-baby space. And if there wasn’t a space, I’d drive home.”

Then she learned that her brain was insulin resistant, due to over-exposure to sugar. She addressed this by taking a tablespoon of MCT oil (a type of easily digested fat), which boosted her brain energy and reduced hunger pangs.

She also changed what she eats. “My diet is very meat heavy now. Meat and two veg makes sense, that’s what we evolved on. I have a super-high calorie intake because I’ve got such a high-fat diet. But it’s not about calories, it’s about the nutrition you’re getting that will stop you snacking.”

Her ideal snack, though, isn’t “a handful of nuts and a corner of dark chocolate”, she was a crisps and mint Aero girl, so making these changes didn’t come naturally.

She explains, “We’ve had our palates hijacked by the five big companies that make 95% of our snacks – but you can hijack them back. I don’t get cravings any more, unless I’m due on my period or something stressful has happened – even then, I’ll crave a big sandwich, not a mint Aero.”

And she’s determined to help others do the same. “Growing numbers of people are dying of chronic diseases,” she says. “We’re living longer, but we’re living worse.”

Futureproof: Build Resilience, Feel Younger, Live Longer by Davinia Taylor (Orion Spring), £16.99, is out now