Davina McCall says she has been ‘terrified of dying my whole life’

TV presenter Davina McCall has said she has been “terrified of dying my whole life” and revealed she has made plans for what happens when she dies.

It comes after the 57-year-old said undergoing an operation to remove a benign brain tumour had left her “not afraid of dying any more” in an interview with Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast.

In a new interview with Good Housekeeping UK, McCall opened up on her earlier fears: “I’ve been terrified of dying my whole life – my mum died quite young, my dad died quite young, and my sister died very young.

“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.

“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.’

“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.”

In April, the former Big Brother presenter confirmed her “final MRI” had showed a colloid cyst, which she had removed in November 2024, is “not coming back”, after it was found when she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work.

McCall also spoke about how she and Douglas told her children about the tumour in the interview.

She added: “Michael and I just did a casual chat in the kitchen. I said: ‘Look, we know what it is and we know where it is, it’s quite rare, but we’ve found somebody who’s done the operation before and he feels confident.’

“I didn’t talk to them about dying, but I did write each of them a letter and I did my will.

“I thought: ‘You’re all great kids and you’ll all be fine if I don’t make it – of course, I want to make it, but if I don’t, you’ll all turn out great.’

“I don’t want to read (the letters) now, as if I’d died, but I do want them to know that I’m proud of them.”

After her surgery, McCall spent time in intensive care before recovering at home with the help of Douglas.

She spoke about the removal of the tumour while co-presenting this year’s Red Nose Day for Comic Relief and said it was “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”.

McCall, the host of reality dating show My Mum, Your Dad, has long advocated for women’s health issues, and has presented a documentary called Sex, Myths And The Menopause and another on contraception called Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution.

She became an MBE in the King’s birthday honours for services to broadcasting in 2023 and was given a special recognition gong at the National Television Awards in 2024 for her broadcasting career.

The full interview can be read in the October issue of Good Housekeeping UK.