Davina McCall has revealed she is undergoing a brain operation after doctors discovered a benign tumour.
The 57-year-old television presenter said in a video posted on Instagram that the tumour was a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
She said the chances of having it were “three in a million,” and she had discovered it a few months ago, after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
McCall admitted the result came as a shock as she had thought she would “ace” the check up, but instead discovered she had a tumour.
She said: “I slightly put my head in the sand for a while, and then I saw quite a few neurosurgeons, I got lots of opinions. I realised that I have to get it taken out.”
McCall described it as “big”, 14mm wide, adding: “It needs to come out, because if it grows it would be bad.”
She explained that she would have it removed via a craniotomy, describing the procedure: “They go through the top of my head here and through the two halves of my brain to the middle.
“They get the cyst, take it out, empty it, and Bob’s your uncle.”
She added: “Say a prayer for me, I am in good spirits”.
McCall, went on: “I’m OK. It’s been up and down. Obviously, we’ve been through a lot.”
She said she would be in hospital “for around nine days”, but during her recovery, she would be “off my phone for a while”.
Joking and smiling, she urged fans “not to worry about me”, admitting, “I’m doing that enough!”
She went on to counter that, explaining: “I’m not worrying too much, and I am in a good space, and I have all the faith in the world in my surgeon and his team, and I’m handing the reins over to him. He knows what he’s doing, and I’m going to do the getting better bit after.”
She signed off saying, “see you on the other side”.
Image: McCall at the National Television Awards this year. Pic: PA
Celebrity friends were quick to send their support, with stars including Rylan, Alan Carr and Holly Willoughby sending love.
According to the NHS, non-cancerous brain tumours are more common in people over the age of 50, and symptoms include headaches, blackouts, behavioural changes and loss of consciousness.
Writing a post alongside McCall’s video on her Instagram page, her partner – hairdresser Michael Douglas – said she was in “great shape” and in “very good hands”.
“The support of people is amazingly powerful,” he wrote. He said he would be adding “the odd update from her account” and said she would read the comments when she was able to do so.
He also appeared in the video, saying he would “have his eye on [Davina]” adding, “she’s in very good hands”.
Image: McCall with the first UK Big Brother winner Craig Phillips in 2000. Pic: PA
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, and currently presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
In recent years, McCall has spoken regularly on women’s health and the effects of menopause in a bid to break taboos around the subject. Her 2022 book, Menopausing, won book of the year at the British Book Awards.
The same year, McCall fronted the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that the perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties multi-tasking and she considered that she had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time.
The presenter has previously raised money for Cancer Research UK by running for Race For Life in honour of her late sister, Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robinson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
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