Davina McCall has credited comedian Peter Kay with supporting her through her brain tumour diagnosis in 2024 and her breast cancer battle in 2025.
Speaking on stage at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the TV star recalled: "I had this brain tumour diagnosis, and I spoke about it because I was going to disappear off the face of the earth for three months.
"So I said exactly what it is, how big it is and the name of it so [the media] could cover everything they needed to, and I would be left alone. It was a really good way of dealing with it.
Peter Kay's phone call
"But when I got breast cancer, it was like... I could really disappear and not talk to anybody about this, but I can't because I have done this before," Davina noted.
"Do you know who really helped me, actually, and it was really strange. Peter Kay. He called me when I was in hospital with my brain tumour. I really don't know him that well, but he was unbelievably supportive.
"When I had my breast cancer diagnosis, he just talked me through what to do. He said: 'What do you want to do? How do you feel about it?' And he said: 'I think you know what you want to do.' And I was like: 'Yeah, I want to talk about it.'"
Husband Michael Douglas praised
Davina, who has since recovered, has also praised her husband, celebrity hairstylist Michael Douglas.
The duo, who first met in 2000 when he styled her hair for Big Brother, began dating in 2018 and tied the knot in December 2025.
"At the end of brain-tumour-gate, cancer brought us together," she admitted. "The tumour pushed us apart because I had no short-term memory – I was over here trying to get better, and he was over [there] worrying if I was ever going to come back.
"But cancer smushed us back together in such a weird way, it was just a beautiful way for us to just reconnect and rebond," Davina noted. "I was almost grateful for that experience, and I caught it early, so I did make a full recovery, but there was something about it that we needed."
