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 award, she looked at her partner of four years, Michael Douglas, and said, “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 her romance safely behind the closed doors of her Kent home.
In an exclusive interview with the Mail, she tells for the first time how grateful she is to be in a relationship and how she had feared being alone in middle age.
Davina McCall with her partner of four years, Michael Douglas, after winning the Special Recognition award at last week’s National Television Awards.
It is especially pertinent that his name is now indelibly linked to a show that attempts to end that very fear. Tonight he returns to present a second series of ITV’s My Mum, Your Dad, a grown-up version of Love Island in which two middle-aged singletons, nominated by their children, try to find love as they move into a Surrey mansion.
McCall and celebrity hairstylist Douglas, 50, began dating two years after she split from her husband of 17 years, Matthew Robertson. She tells me: “Loneliness is a theme that’s dealt with quite a bit in My Mum, Your Dad and I talked to Michael a lot about it. I said, ‘You know, it’s amazing that we got together at this stage of life because I don’t know if I would be with anyone if we hadn’t been together.'”
“I think women are much happier being alone later in life, but it’s quite sad. Sometimes women who get divorced don’t get invited to dinner or are passed over because they’re no longer in a relationship. They’re single women and that just magnifies their loneliness.”
She adds: “I think for famous women it’s quite difficult. You can’t get on apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to because I knew Michael, I’d known him for 20 years. I’d probably take a dance class… God knows what I’d do.”
“It’s quite difficult for famous women. You can’t use apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to because I knew Michael, I’d known him for 20 years,” McCall says.
For McCall, it’s simply unbearable to think 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 heads off to university.
“I’m in the middle of the empty nest thing,” he says. “As a parent, the goal is to give your kids enough confidence to leave home and not look back, so they’re not afraid to take that leap.”
She helped Holly move up north where she has a new job. ‘I drove her, we went to Ikea to buy all the storage stuff and we did it. And then I thought, ‘What is this feeling I have in my heart?’ It was a very unfamiliar feeling. I thought, ‘I’m going to leave you here… wow, this is really hard.’
“It’s not like you’re taking someone to college and they’re coming back for the big vacation. She’s starting her real life. I cried when I left. I didn’t think I would feel that way. It’s very exciting, but also emotional. It was an unexpected emotion.”
She loves being able to give middle-aged people like herself a second chance through My Mum, Your Dad, and says the show reflects her own experiences. “I’d say we’re the first of a generation of people who were the party people of the 80s. They’re my people,” she says.
‘Back in the days when you were never asked for ID, we all went out dancing at 14, 15, 16. Girls liked being ladettes; I was the first sober ladette. We’re that generation that went crazy, had kids, raised them, and then said, ‘OK, I’m still young enough.’
Davina is the host of reality dating show, My Mum, Your Dad, which starts tonight.
When I met the presenter at ITV’s headquarters in west London, she certainly looked much younger than her years. She’s radiant and looks very, very fit. Last month she posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing a red bikini and matching cowboy boots, showing off her six-pack.
Her exercise routine is surprisingly modest, but she has just cut out sugar, eats eggs for breakfast and eats a lot of oily fish. “I work out three or four times a week, that’s all the time I have,” she explains.
‘I’m active on other days. I always run up the escalator or get off the train one stop early and walk or run. I’ve spent a summer swimming in the sea, dancing in a disco and kayaking.
‘Now I do strength training: bicep curls, planks and squats with weights.’
“I’m participating in the Couch to 5k race. I haven’t run and I’m not in shape, so I’m starting over. I’m very humble,” she adds, smiling.
My Mum, Your Dad started last night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.