When Davina McCall paid an emotional tribute to her boyfriend on stage at the National Television Awards last week, she did so knowing how lonely life could have been without him.
After accepting the prestigious Special Recognition prize, she looked at her partner of four years, Michael Douglas, to tell him: ‘I love being on this journey with you. You make me a better person and you make me so happy. Thank you.’
It was a very public statement for Ms McCall, 56, who prefers to keep their romance securely behind the closed doors of their Kent home.
In an exclusive interview with the Mail, she tells for the first time of how grateful she is for being in a relationship and how she had feared being alone in midlife.
Davina McCall with partner of four years Michael Douglas, after she won the Special Recognition prize at last week’s National Television Awards
It feels particularly pertinent as her name is now indelibly linked to a show which attempts to quell that very fear. She is back tonight to host a second series of ITV’s My Mum, Your Dad, a grown-up Love Island which sees middle-aged singletons, nominated by their children, attempt to find romance as they move into a Surrey mansion.
Ms McCall and celebrity hairdresser Douglas, 50, began dating two years after she split from her husband of 17 years, Matthew Robertson. She tells me: ‘Loneliness is a topic which is covered quite a lot in My Mum, Your Dad and I spoke to Michael a lot about that. I said: “You know, it’s amazing we got together at this stage of life because I don’t know if I would be with anybody if we hadn’t got together”.’
‘I think women are much happier to be alone later in life but it’s quite sad. Sometimes for women who get divorced, they don’t get invited to dinners, or they get overlooked as they are not in a couple any more. They are a single woman and that just magnifies your loneliness.’
She adds: ‘I think for famous women it’s quite hard. You can’t do the apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to do that because I knew Michael – I had known him for 20 years. I probably would be off to join a dance class – God knows what I would be doing.’
‘For famous women it’s quite hard. You can’t do the apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to do that because I knew Michael – I had known him for 20 years,’ Ms McCall says
For Ms McCall, it simply doesn’t bear thinking about, especially at a time when her nest is emptying. Her eldest daughter Holly, 23, recently moved to Manchester with her boyfriend. Second daughter Tilly, 21, is in Australia. That leaves only son Chester, 18, at home for another year before he goes to university.
‘I am right in the thick of the empty nest issue,’ she says. ‘As a parent, the aim is to give your children enough confidence to leave home and never look back, to not be frightened of taking that leap.’
She helped Holly move up North, where she has a new job. ‘I drove her there, we went to Ikea to get all of the storage stuff and made it. And then I was like: ‘What is this feeling I have got in my heart?’ It was such an unfamiliar feeling. I thought: ‘I’m going to leave you here… wow, this is really hard’.
‘It’s not like taking someone to university and they will be back for the big holiday. She is starting her real life. I cried when I left. I didn’t think I would have felt like that. It’s so exciting but it’s emotional. It was an unexpected emotion.’
She loves being able to give mid-lifers like herself a second chance through My Mum, Your Dad, saying the show mirrors her own experiences. ‘I would say we are the first of a generation of people who were the ravers in the 1980s. They are my people,’ she says.
‘Back in the day when they never asked you for ID, we were all clubbing at 14, 15, 16. Girls liked being ladettes – I was the first sober ladette. We are that generation who were mad, then had our kids, raised them and then said, ‘OK, I’m still young enough’.’
Davina is the host of dating reality show, My Mum, Your Dad, which starts tonight
When I meet the presenter at ITV’s west London HQ, she certainly looks much younger than her years. She’s glowing and looks very, very fit. Last month she posted a picture of herself on Instagram in a red bikini and matching cowboy boots, showing off her washboard stomach.
Her exercise regime is surprisingly modest, but she has just given up sugar again, has eggs for breakfast and eats lots of oily fish. ‘I exercise three to four times a week, that’s all I have time for,’ she explains.
‘I am active on my other days. I will always run up the escalator, or get off the train one stop early and walk or run. I have had a summer of swimming in the sea, dancing in the nightclub, going kayaking.
‘I do strength training now – bicep curls, planks, squats with weights.’
‘I am doing Couch to 5k. I haven’t done any running and I’m not fit so I’m right at the beginning again. I’m very humble,’ she adds, smiling.
My Mum, Your Dad started last night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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