When Davina McCall paid an emotional tribute to her boyfriend on stage on the National Television Awards final week, she did so figuring out how lonely life may have been with out him.
After accepting the celebrated Particular Recognition prize, she checked out her companion of 4 years, Michael Douglas, to inform him: ‘I like being on this journey with you. You make me a greater individual and also you make me so completely satisfied. Thanks.’
It was a really public assertion for Ms McCall, 56, who prefers to maintain their romance securely behind the closed doorways of their Kent dwelling.
In an unique interview with the Mail, she tells for the primary time of how grateful she is for being in a relationship and the way she had feared being alone in midlife.
Davina McCall with companion of 4 years Michael Douglas, after she gained the Particular Recognition prize eventually week’s Nationwide Tv Awards
It feels significantly pertinent as her title is now indelibly linked to a present which makes an attempt to quell that very concern. She is again tonight to host a second sequence of ITV‘s My Mum, Your Dad, a grown-up Love Island which sees middle-aged singletons, nominated by their youngsters, try to seek out romance as they transfer right into a Surrey mansion.
Ms McCall and superstar hairdresser Douglas, 50, started courting two years after she split from her husband of 17 years, Matthew Robertson. She tells me: ‘Loneliness is a subject which is roofed quite a bit in My Mum, Your Dad and I spoke to Michael so much about that. I stated: “You realize, it is wonderful we bought collectively at this stage of life as a result of I do not know if I’d be with anyone if we hadn’t bought collectively”.’
‘I feel girls are a lot happier to be alone later in life however it’s fairly unhappy. Generally for girls who get divorced, they do not get invited to dinners, or they get ignored as they aren’t in a pair any extra. They’re a single lady and that simply magnifies your loneliness.’
She provides: ‘I feel for well-known girls it is fairly onerous. You’ll be able to’t do the apps, so how do you meet folks? I did not have to try this as a result of I knew Michael – I had recognized him for 20 years. I in all probability can be off to affix a dance class – God is aware of what I’d be doing.’
‘For well-known girls it is fairly onerous. You’ll be able to’t do the apps, so how do you meet folks? I did not have to try this as a result of I knew Michael – I had recognized him for 20 years,’ Ms McCall says
For Ms McCall, it merely does not bear serious about, particularly at a time when her nest is emptying. Her eldest daughter Holly, 23, lately moved to Manchester together with her boyfriend. Second daughter Tilly, 21, is in Australia. That leaves solely son Chester, 18, at dwelling for an additional yr earlier than he goes to school.
‘I’m proper within the thick of the empty nest situation,’ she says. ‘As a dad or mum, the intention is to provide your youngsters sufficient confidence to go away dwelling and by no means look again, to not be fearful of taking that leap.’
She helped Holly transfer up North, the place she has a brand new job. ‘I drove her there, we went to Ikea to get all the storage stuff and made it. After which I used to be like: ‘What’s this sense I’ve bought in my coronary heart?’ It was such an unfamiliar feeling. I assumed: ‘I will depart you right here… wow, that is actually onerous’.
‘It is not like taking somebody to school and they are going to be again for the large vacation. She is beginning her actual life. I cried once I left. I did not assume I’d have felt like that. It is so thrilling however it’s emotional. It was an surprising emotion.’
She loves having the ability to give mid-lifers like herself a second likelihood via My Mum, Your Dad, saying the present mirrors her personal experiences. ‘I’d say we’re the primary of a era of people that have been the ravers within the Eighties. They’re my folks,’ she says.
‘Again within the day once they by no means requested you for ID, we have been all clubbing at 14, 15, 16. Women favored being ladettes – I used to be the primary sober ladette. We’re that era who have been mad, then had our children, raised them after which stated, ‘OK, I am nonetheless younger sufficient’.’
Davina is the host of courting actuality present, My Mum, Your Dad, which begins tonight
Once I meet the presenter at ITV’s west London HQ, she definitely seems to be a lot youthful than her years. She’s glowing and appears very, very match. Final month she posted an image of herself on Instagram in a pink bikini and matching cowboy boots, displaying off her washboard abdomen.
Her train regime is surprisingly modest, however she has simply given up sugar once more, has eggs for breakfast and eats plenty of oily fish. ‘I train three to 4 occasions per week, that is all I’ve time for,’ she explains.
‘I’m energetic on my different days. I’ll at all times run up the escalator, or get off the practice one cease early and stroll or run. I’ve had a summer season of swimming within the sea, dancing within the nightclub, going kayaking.
‘I do power coaching now – bicep curls, planks, squats with weights.’
‘I’m doing Sofa to 5k. I have not completed any operating and I am not match so I am proper originally once more. I am very humble,’ she provides, smiling.
My Mum, Your Dad began final night time at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.