BACK TO HER BEST

After weeping with relief on receiving the all-clear following her brain-tumour scare, Davina McCall opens up about leaning on her family, how she'll feel when her youngest child flies the nest and whether marriage is on the cards

- DANIELLE LAWLER

Davina McCall looks as though she’s having the time of her life. “Haha — can you tell?” she asks HELLO! with a carefree laugh.

The popular presenter always seems positive, on and off screen, but there’s something about the 57-year-old that’s distinctly lighter than when we last met, a few months ago.

It could be thanks to the epic karaoke sessions she’s been enjoying with her partner, celebrity hairdresser Michael Douglas, or the fact that she’s back at work, on forthcoming BBC1 show Stranded on Honeymoon Island. “I love love,” she says of hosting her latest relationship TV show.

Or perhaps her cheerful mood is due to her return to fitness training, in preparation for a 5km run in aid of The Lady Garden Foundation’s Family Challenge.

It is, however, none of these. The main reason for her energy boost is a recent MRI check-up scan, which revealed that the brain tumour found during a wellness check in August 2023 has officially left the building and will not be back.

“I couldn't celebrate being better until I knew there was nothing left in there,” she says in this exclusive interview. “So this was really good news.”

Her trademark smile has never faltered during the past six months, since her surgeon, Mr Kevin O'Neill, performed a life-saving operation to remove the rare tumour — a 0.5in colloid cyst of a type that is found in only three in a million people, and which was dangerously positioned in the centre of her brain.

Before the procedure, she managed to make light of the situation by throwing a party for the tumour, which she had named Jeffrey. Yet behind the scenes, Davina was carrying the weight of fear that the surgery might not have worked.