Davina McCall, the former presenter of Big Brother, says she is “not afraid of dying” following a successful operation to remove a benign brain tumour.
The 57-year-old underwent the surgery in November 2024 to excise a colloid cyst, which was discovered during a health check-up linked to her extensive menopause advocacy work.
In April, McCall confirmed that her “final MRI” scan had reassuringly shown the cyst is “not coming back”.
McCall told Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast: “I am not afraid of dying anymore and it was the biggest journey of my life. From August 23 to November 24 was an amazing time where something changed.
“Begin Again, the podcast I started to help other people on their journey of living a life that they love enough to feel on their deathbed, whenever that may be, that I have no regrets.
“I have lived the life I wanted, and I’m not lying there going, ‘I wish I’d done that thing, wish I’d done that job, I wish I’d not stayed in this relationship’, all of those I haven’t lived the life I want (things), and Begin Again is about just begin again and live the life you want.”
McCall, a judge on ITV singing show The Masked Singer, said her only concern about death is how her family would cope.
Speaking about the time her tumour was found, she added: “I thought I need to get my brain in the right place and that was to a place where I could be calm, and what did I need to do to do that? Were my kids going to be okay if I didn’t make it? That’s all I really cared about.
“I knew Michael (Douglas, her partner), Michael’s a whole person, Michael’s Michael, but I was really worried about my kids.
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“I went forensic on thinking about my children and where they were at in their life, what stage they were at. You’re only as happy as your unhappiest child, right?
“I came to a realisation after about six months of cross-examining them about their life and telling them the whole time how much I’ve loved my life. My eldest daughter kept caught on. She was like, ‘you are not dying’, I was like, ‘no, no, no’, I realised that they would be great.
“They’d miss me and I want to be with them but they would be okay. I felt like I could go to sleep on the operating table and know that they were all here to help me, but I can let go of the outcome and it was the best gift. I am not afraid of dying.”
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 listened to on the Happy Place with Fearne Cotton podcast.
