Davina McCall says brain tumour recovery was the ‘greatest thing’ to happen to her

Davina McCall has said that recovering from a benign brain tumour has been the “greatest thing” to happen to her.

In November, the 57-year-old TV presenter and Masked Singer judge underwent an operation to remove a 14mm benign tumour, a colloid cyst, which affects only three in a million people. In April, an MRI scan confirmed that the operation was successful and she was given the all-clear.

McCall has now said that the new perspective gained from that period has had a transformative impact on her.

Speaking in a new interview with Women’s Health, the presenter recalled a conversation she had with her partner, the celebrity hairstylist Michael Douglas, ahead of her operation.

She told him: “If I make it, this will be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Looking back at that revelation, McCall stood by her statement, saying, “Because of the learnings, yes, and because of the places I’ve had to go to deal with it.”

McCall, who experienced short-term memory loss after the operation, has set herself the goal of getting “brain fit” by undertaking new hobbies such as relearning the piano, resitting the maths A-level she “flunked” and reading more.

She’s also carried on the weekly singing lessons she began when she was a contestant on The Masked Singer Christmas Special.

“I’ve carried on because I’ve seen big improvements in my breathing – and obviously my breathing has been helping my vagus nerve,’ she said, referring to the nerve that plays a central role in the parasympathetic system (responsible for the body’s rest and digest functions).

McCall, who was raised Christian, also revealed how the recovery period has had an impact on her spiritually, leaning towards the idea of “oneness”.

“I’m sort of going through a slightly mind-blowing phase of my life where I’m just asking questions about everything,” she explained. “I keep thinking: I’ve survived this thing, but I don’t know how that happened or why it happened.”

McCall added that she and her partner have been practising “radical honesty” in their relationship, which aided their communication as they navigated the buildup to the operation and the recovery process.

“That’s been incredibly helpful in terms of coping with everything, and in the lead-up. I was always going to get the truth from Michael,” she said.

“Three weeks before the operation, I showed Michael my true feelings. I said I felt really scared. I had a massive cry… he said that when we first got together, he was like, ‘You’re quite hard to look after, how do I do that?’ And when we had that big talk, he said, ‘You know, I’ve been in training for this moment. And I’m ready, you know, I’ve got your back.’”

McCall’s shift in outlook has culminated in her loving “everything at the moment”.

“I’ve got rose-tinted goggles on for life. A river is like… wow! Look at that tree. Look at the moss. Everything is so beautiful,” she said.

McCall rose to fame presenting the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother, and has gone on to front programmes including Comic Relief, The Million Pound Drop, and ITV’s My Mum, Your Dad. She is also a judge on the ITV shows The Masked Singer and The Masked Dancer.

In recent years, McCall has become an advocate for raising awareness around menopause. In 2022, she released a book titled Menopausing: The Positive Roadmap To Your Second Spring, with the aim of ending “the shame and horrific misinformation surrounding menopause”.