Having brain surgery to remove a tumour late last year changed Davina McCall’s life. But her son didn’t quite appreciate how serious it was until after the fact, she has revealed.
Davina, 57, had a couple of reservations ahead of her TV comeback for the Comic Relief telethon later on tonight (March 21).
And she was understandably angry – at first – when her partner Michael pushed her to return to work. She was glad for the encouragement in the end, though.
Now we know from a new interview that her son Chester didn’t know quite how serious her brain surgery was until after she’d had it…
Davina McCall reveals son’s reaction to brain tumour removal
TV presenter and national treasure in the making Davina McCall has opened up about her recovery following brain surgery.
Speaking during Brain Tumour Research’s Closer to a Cure: 15 Years of Impact gala at London’s Dorchester Hotel, she said she feels “exactly the same”.
Her partner, hairstylist Michael Douglas, was with her. Davina told Hello! magazine she had a new outlook on life, but that she felt no different in terms of her personality.
Of course her children, Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18, whom she shares with ex-husband Matthew Robertson, are delighted that she’s back to her bubbly old self.
But seeing her off to the hospital may have been easier for some than others. Namely her son Chester, who said when she got home that he “didn’t know it was that serious”.
“I was quite pleased in a funny sort of way but then I also thought I hadn’t really done my job properly,” she said.
Davina added: “I didn’t want to worry him, but I hadn’t prepared him [for] if it hadn’t gone well. I felt like I’d slightly shortchanged him there. But I’m okay, so it’s great news.”
She’s found the return of her normal brain function ‘exhausting’
Davina McCall had a cyst between the left and right hemispheres of her brain. Now that her cognitive function has returned to normal, four months after the operation, she appreciates the symptoms she experienced before it.
“My mind had gone quiet, and now my mind’s woken up. It’s absolutely exhausting! I remember waking up going: ‘Oh my god, shut up!’ I was thinking so much.”
She was the same in every other way, she says. And she’d started meditating, so she assumed the quieting of her “brain chatter” was a sign she’d just “gone a bit more zen”.
Davina is among the stars presenting the Comic Relief telethon tonight (March 21) on BBC One at 7pm.
Read more: Davina McCall’s tears over daughter Tilly: ‘I cried all the way home’
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