Davina McCall is no stranger to appearing on the telly – but life hasn’t always been easy for the national treasure as she battled addiction.
Shooting to fame in the nineties, 56-year-old Davina has since carved an impressive career in the TV world. She’s back on screens on May 5 for a repeat on Long Lost Family on ITV3.
From being the frontwoman of reality show Big Brother for its entire run to hosting ITV’s dating series My Mum, Your Dad, Davina has remained booked and busy.
But it wasn’t always an upward path for Davina – who battled with addiction for many years.
Davina McCall on her addiction
Over the years, Davina has been super open about her issues with drugs – which she faced when she was in her early twenties.
I was a heroin addict – that was my drug of choice.
Speaking to Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett on his Diary of a CEO podcast in 2023, Davina revealed she started smoking weed at 12 years old when she visited her alcoholic mum in Paris. She also admitted that she took cocaine when she was 14 with her sister, and with her mum aged 15.
The TV star also revealed she was addicted to Class A drug heroin. Speaking during Advertising Week Europe 2021, she said: “I was a heroin addict – that was my drug of choice.
“I loved heroin, more than my family, more than myself. I hated myself, but I loved heroin more than anything I would have stolen, I would have got myself into terrible mixes to try and get it or have it or get money to have it.”
Overdose
Eventually, things took a harrowing turn for Davina when she ended up overdosing at the height of her crippling addiction.
According to the Sun on Sunday, she told an International Women’s Day event in 2020: “Drugs took me to a very, very, very dark place and, one night, I overdosed. It was very frightening as it was a very gradual overdose.”
Davina went on to note how she was “constantly trying to escape,” comparing herself to “like a piece of fruit rotting from the inside”. She added: “The next thing I knew I woke up in hospital. At my lowest point, when I was filled with self hatred, it was literally a case of ‘get clean, or die’.”
Davina McCall on getting clean
Following the drug overdose, Davina knew she had to turn her life around and became clean when she was 25 within a year with the help of Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
But Davina also recalled how her best friend helped her come to terms with her addiction. She told This Morning in 2016: “I always wore makeup, I had a job, I didn’t steal. I wasn’t like your average street junkie.
“Everyone is different, but for me, it was when my friend said: ‘Everyone is talking about you and what a mess you are,’ that changed things. I thought I was fully functioning. But I wasn’t. My cover was blown.”
Davina reflected on getting clean in her self-help book, Lessons I’ve Learned, in 2016. She explained: “I went into the NA meeting that night and my life changed. I owe NA my life, literally. But it also gave me my career.” She added: “And because I got clean I got the job I’d dreamed of and that changed my life forever.”
Davina McCall’s career
Davina went on to bag a life-changing job with MTV in 1992, fronting Rays Cokes’ Most Wanted on MTV Europe. And it was that moment then, that her long-running and successful career in television began.
Davina was catapulted into stardom though when she became the host of Channel 4’s Streetmate in 1998, followed by the iconic reality show Big Brother that she fronted from 2000 to 2010.
Since then, it’s fair to say she’s not stopped. She’s hosted shows such as Long Lost Family, The Masked Singer, The Jump and The Million Pound Drop.
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