Big Brother presenter Davina McCall previously opened up about her heartbreaking childhood with her drug addict mother, who exposed her to cocaine and heroin during her teenage years
Davina McCall has overcome hugely traumatic events in her life, including an addiction to heroin and a chaotic and somewhat neglectful childhood.
The 57-year-old TV presenter and fitness guru, who is currently recovering from the removal of a benign brain tumour, first started smoking cannabis at age 12 with her French mother, Florence, who had split from her father when Davina was very young. As a child, Davina mostly lived with her paternal grandparents in Surrey after Florence told her at age four that she was going on a two-week holiday but never came back.
“I grew up thinking that my mum had left me and had never come back…and I was left feeling guilty that my granny was looking after me and she didn’t want me in some way,” Davina explained on the Diary of a CEO podcast. This “defining moment” would “set up a chain of events, a fear of abandonment that made me make some really stupid decisions all through my teenage years into my twenties”.
On the odd occasion she would see her mum in France, Florence would do strange things. She once drove intoxicated through a cricket match and went out into the street wearing nothing but a trench coat to flash passers-by.
Florence had her own alcohol and drug issues and exposed young Davina to them from a very early age. While visiting in France, Davina would frequently be forgotten about – she once nearly drowned in the sea but didn’t bother telling her mother. “When I was about eight or nine I nearly drowned, I was hit on the head in the sea by a little boat,” she recalled on Desert Island Discs. “I choked and a woman saw it and waded out to me and lifted me out and hugged me. I remember standing on the beach and thinking ‘Should I tell Mummy?’ and then thought there is no point because she won’t mother me.
“She always came first, her feelings and worries and life were always more important and we always worked around her.”
At the age of 14, Davina started dabbling in harder substances, taking cocaine for the first time with her older sister, and later, with Florence. She also started drinking heavily, explaining: “I couldn’t take cocaine normally either; I couldn’t just take it for four hours and then go to bed. I had to take it for 24 hours; I was an animal.”
Aged 15, Davina tried heroin for the first time and described the experience as “like coming home”. “When you are on it, nothing else matters, so you don’t care about meeting someone on time or picking up your kids from school,” she remembered. Heroin, she added, “became my best friend. It’s like the biggest, warmest, softest cuddle”.
It was only thanks to her best friend Sarah that Davina was able to kick her destructive addictions. One day Sarah told her she was taking Davina to a Santana concert, only to reveal there was no gig and that she knew about Davina’s heroin use. At the time, Davina had just come off a 24-hour cocaine bender and reacted with fury, storming back to her father and stepmum’s home. But an hour later, having reflected on Sarah’s concern, she reached out to a friend who had started the process of recovery and asked for help.
That moment led Davina to attend her first Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting. It wasn’t long before she became a regular attendee, which she credits with saving her life.
After kicking the drugs to the curb, Davina went to interview for a job with MTV that she’d previously been turned down for due to her drug use. Taking a chance on her, MTV offered her the role – which kickstarted her successful career in showbiz.
Sadly Davina’s relationship with her mother never fully recovered. She attempted to reach out to Florence, inviting her to her wedding to Matthew Robertson and even asking her to attend an NA meeting with her. To her shock and horror, her mother betrayed her by selling the story – with private pictures – to a newspaper. “It was like being stabbed in the heart,” Davina later revealed, adding that she’d cut her mum out of her life for good after that.
Luckily Davina has since built her own loving family. She shares three children – Holly, Tilly and Chester – with ex-husband Matthew, who she divorced in 2017.
Since 2019, she has been dating her former hairstylist, Michael Douglas, who has been by her side ever since. He is currently sharing updates on her brain tumour battle with fans, telling Davina’s followers on Monday, November 18, that there is “light breaking through” after the diagnosis of her tumour.
“Massive relief to see some light breaking through. Thanks for all the good vibes coming in from all angles. Up and Up. Thanks so much to all the well wishers. She really has made an enormous leap forward in the last 24 hours. She is out of ICU. She is “loving awareness”. Thank you xx – Michael,” he added.
