Davina McCall has revealed that she suffered from “advanced Alzheimer’s” symptoms following her brain tumour surgery. The TV presenter described the ordeal as the “toughest year” of her and husband Michael Douglas’ lives.
Memory loss after surgery
Speaking to Paloma Faith on the Mad Sad Bad podcast, the 58-year-old reflected on the previous year. “After I'd had my brain tumour taken out [in 2024], I had advanced Alzheimer's, so I couldn't remember anything. When I came out of the operation, I didn't know I'd had an operation. The staff came in every day, and they'd go: 'What's my name?' and I'd go: 'I don't know'.”
She added: “Michael would come and visit for two hours, and he'd go to the loo and come back, and I'd go: 'Oh my God, you're here,' and I didn't know he'd been there.” McCall said she couldn’t watch films for six months as she would forget what had happened as she watched, and that she also had to stop reading.
Recovery through music
McCall said that later that year, her memory began to improve thanks to singing, which she described as “mind physio”. “Music healed me and last October was the first time I woke up and went, ‘Oh my God, I remember what I did yesterday,’” she said.
In November 2024, the broadcaster revealed that she had been diagnosed with a benign 14mm brain tumour, known as a colloid cyst. It was subsequently removed later that year. In April last year, she told fans that her final MRI scan had shown that the tumour had completely disappeared.
Health battles continue
Colloid cysts are benign, non-cancerous fluid-filled sacs found in or around the lateral and third ventricles of the brain, according to the London Neurosurgery Partnership. Revealing her diagnosis in 2024, McCall explained that after consulting with multiple neurosurgeons and receiving "lots of opinions," she decided to have the tumour removed as it is "big for the space" in her brain, and could cause serious issues if it continues to grow.
While hosting Comic Relief in March 2025 she said: “It’s been, quite possibly, the hardest thing I’ve ever been through and this whole experience, weirdly, kind of weighing up all the risks and all the positive things about having this tumour removed made me think deeply about what life is all about, and what really, really matters when things get tough.”
Despite receiving the all-clear in April, 2025 had another health scare in store for McCall, who revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy in November to remove it. “It was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky, but I am so relieved to have had it removed, and to know that it hasn’t spread.”
