Davina McCall has opened up about a particularly poignant moment during her recovery from brain tumour surgery.
The much-loved television host, aged 57, had previously announced in November that she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour (colloid cyst) following a health check, leading to her undergoing an operation.
On a recent instalment of the Making The Cut podcast, Davina and her co-host Michael Douglas, who is also her partner, delved into the details of her surgery and the recovery process.
Davina recounted experiencing short-term memory issues post-surgery, even forgetting she had already undergone the procedure and believing it was scheduled for the next day.
Michael was tasked with ensuring Davina didn’t touch her scar and had to “reinforce reality” by correcting her when she got confused.
Davina shared: “I think the saddest one for me, because I had spent the most amazing afternoon with my dad, who died two years ago, but it was the most real experience I have ever had.”
She added: “He was with me and he was comforting me and we were laughing; we had the most amazing afternoon and when you came, I was like, ‘I have just spent the afternoon with Dad and it was amazing! ‘”
Michael’s response to this was: “And you were like, ‘I don’t know if I can reinforce this,” and he admitted: “Yes, I didn’t want to bother with that. I thought, ‘Right, well, I’m not bothering correcting that, that, you know, fantasy or something. We’ll just leave that hanging for a bit.”
The next day, Davina approached Michael with the question of whether her father had passed away, to which he confirmed. She confessed that she wasn’t angry with him for telling her, reports Devon Live.
Michael admitted it was tough to witness her in pain when she realised her previous experience was merely a figment of her “imagination”. Michael then offered a perspective, suggesting they entertain the possibility that her father was truly there because “who’s to say he wasn’t? “.
It was during this segment of the podcast that Davina acknowledged feeling like he was there but also realised she had put Michael through the ordeal again the next day, an experience he likened to ‘Groundhog Day‘.
Earlier in the month, the Masked Singer UK presenter disclosed how a remark from Michael acted as the “missing piece of the jigsaw” aiding her healing process, BristolLive reported.
In an episode of her Begin Again podcast, she said: “After the interview I called my counsellor and I put in an appointment with her and the combination that week of the podcast and an hour with her really made a massive difference to me, I was able to process quite a lot of stuff that had been a bit stuck.
She recounted how Michael noted her return to form one weekend by saying “Michael said to me the weekend after that ‘oh, you’re back’ and it was like the piece of the jigsaw that I was missing, it was a bit like therapy.”, which she felt resembled therapy and completed the puzzle of her emotional recovery.