Davina McCall became emotional as she recounted a distressing incident when she forgot to pick up her daughter Tilly from nursery. The 57-year-old presenter, who has three children with ex-husband Matthew Robertson, opened up about the experience on the podcast 'Your Mind, Your Rules' with therapist Marisa Peer.
McCall explained that she arrived at the nursery at noon, only to discover it had closed at 11am and that a friend, Nicola, had already collected Tilly. She said: 'I sat in the car and started crying, and couldn’t drive, I couldn’t see. I had to just get it out.' She then drove to Nicola's house, where she collapsed upon arrival, repeatedly asking if Tilly was safe. Nicola reassured her that Tilly was 'husking corn in the garden' and perfectly happy.
The incident triggered memories of her own childhood, when her mother left for a two-week skiing trip and never returned. McCall, who was raised by her paternal grandparents in Surrey, recalled the anxiety of flying to Paris to visit her mother, never knowing if she would be collected from the airport. 'I was never 100% sure that I was going to get collected from the airport,' she said. 'My mum wouldn’t be there. And then there would be phone calls, and then there would be, oh s**t, and then there would be somebody coming.'
Despite their strained relationship, McCall has spoken fondly of her mother, who died in 2008. She previously revealed that she smoked cannabis with her mother at age 12, but told The Times: 'I don't want to slag her off. She was my mum, warts and all. She wasn't perfect. And she did make me, in so many ways, who I am.'
