Davina McCall has spoken about how she prepared herself for the possibility of dying at the age of 56, before undergoing brain surgery in November 2024. The presenter had a craniotomy after doctors discovered a "very rare" colloid cyst in her brain. The five-hour operation was successful, though she experienced symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's disease for around a year afterwards.
'Looking death in the face'
Moments before the operation, Davina said she forced herself to come to terms with the fact she might not survive. She recalled "looking death in the face" and realised she needed to remain calm and not think about the outcome.
"I looked dying in the face when I had the brain surgery, I lay there and I thought, 'Okay, I have to go into that operating theater and go to sleep and let go of the outcome," the former Big Brother host said on Paloma Faith's Mad, Bad and Sad podcast. "I can't go in full of fear."
Staying calm for the surgeon
Davina, who shares Holly, Tilly and Chester with her ex-husband Matthew Robinson, said she did not want to put pressure on the surgeon by telling him he needed to keep her alive for the sake of her three children.
"I don't want to fill the surgeon and everybody working with him full of fear. You know, 'I've got three kids, please keep me alive.' You want someone to be calm," Davina continued. "I thought, I have to be calm to help them be calm. I looked back at my life and I thought, have I kept my side of the street clean? For me, that meant apologising for something that you feel you need to apologise for and not expecting anything in return."
Reflecting on life
Davina went on: "And I thought, yes, I have done that throughout my life. Do my kids know how much I love them? Yes. So, I thought, I can go in there and I can let go of the outcome."
"Let's face it, we all think that we're going to die when we're 70 or 80, but there I was 56 thinking, 'Oh, this could be it. You haven't got the extra 30 years.'"
Davina then urged anyone listening to tick things off their bucket list as soon as they could, as she agreed that people should live every day like it might be their last.
Health battles continue
During the interview, the Long Lost Family host described 2025 as the "hardest year" for both herself and her husband, Michael Douglas. Less than one year after undergoing brain surgery, Davina was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her diagnosis came just two months after receiving the all-clear from a mammogram. She underwent a lumpectomy shortly after, and announced in April 2026 that she has been given the all-clear.
