Davina McCall says she stayed in her bedroom for months after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour last year, becoming ‘nervous’ about everyday life
Davina McCall says she stayed in her bedroom for months after her brain surgery (Image: Getty)
Davina McCall apologised to her partner Michael Douglas after being left in tears by a sudden realisation. Davina, 57, underwent surgery in November last year after doctors discovered a colloid cyst, a type of benign tumour.
The former Big Brother presenter spent time in intensive care after the procedure before continuing her recovery at home. She recently revealed she even made plans for her death after the operation. She says she spent three months in her bedroom, admitting she had become “nervous about immersing myself into real life again”. However she eventually found herself going for a walk and doing “very easy exercises” in the gym.
Davina with partner Michael (Image: GETTY)
Celebrity hairdresser Michael however insisted Davina would feel better once she finally returned to work. Davina however admits she was initially reluctant about returning to television.
Speaking to The Sun, Davina explained: “I thought: ‘You don’t understand, you don’t know how I feel.’ This is what anxious people feel when somebody is trying to make them confront their fear.”
Davina’s new BBC dating show, Stranded On Honeymoon Island, was filmed in March. And whilst she was initially worried about returning to work, she admits it made her feel “useful”.
She added: “After I’d done my first day back at work, I called Michael, and I was sobbing from the car: ‘I am really sorry I’ve been pushing back on you, but you are so right. I really needed this.’
Davina wrote letters to her family in case she died (Image: Ian Gavan, Getty Images)
“I needed to have purpose again. I was so happy to see the team from Long Lost Family. I loved working. It made me feel useful.”
Davina, who shares children Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18, with ex-husband Matthew Robertson, told Good Housekeeping that she asked Michael to stay “plugged in” to their lives should she not survive her health battle.
She said: “I thought ‘I have to come to terms with the fact that I might not make it, so what do I have to do to make that OK?’ I had to let go of the outcome and be able to go to sleep without the abject horror of the idea of dying.”
Davina continued: “I said to Michael [Douglas, her partner] ‘If I go, I really need you to keep plugged in to the kids [Holly, Tilly and Chester [who she shares with her ex-husband Matthew Robertson] and stay in their lives.
Davina was left tearfully apologising to Michael (Image: Getty)
“We were both scared, but we were honest and told each other that. It made the whole thing less daunting, knowing that everything was out on the table.”
Davina says she wrote the children letters and prepared a will in case she died. In April however she discovered the cyst “is not coming back”. She described the recovery as the “hardest thing I’ve ever been through”.
According to the NHS, non-cancerous brain tumours are more common in people over the age of 50, and symptoms include headaches, vision problems and drowsiness, and some can be “difficult to remove without damaging surrounding tissue”.
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