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 1990s, 57-year-old Davina McCall has carved an impressive career in the TV world. She’s back on screens tonight (June 18) on ITV1 series Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace.
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 very open about her issues with drugs – which she faced when she was in her early twenties.
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.
She said previously: “There were no boundaries. Wearing make-up, short skirts, high heels at 13, drinking… eventually, I even took drugs with her. I don’t blame her at all for my addiction, but it was screwed up… not a normal mother-child relationship.
“I was just a kid and… I thought she was cool because my granny, Pippy, and my dad never let me do any of that in England. I realised years later it was because they were normal, responsible adults.”
Davina cut her mother out of her life in 2000 when Florence sold a story about her daughter suggesting she was about to relapse the day before her wedding to ex-husband Matthew Robertson.
Florence, Davina’s mother, died in 2008. Speaking about her death, Davina told the Mail: “When she died I felt a sense of relief that I could stop swinging from side to side. And I also think, please God, when I die, don’t let it be a relief to anybody.”
Heroin addiction and overdose
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.”
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 make-up, 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 Jump and The Million Pound Drop.
New addiction
Now, Davina has revealed she has a new, healthier addiction.
In an interview with New! magazine last year, she shared: “Nutrition and exercise are things I do because I want to live as long as possible. It’s not about what people think or how I look.”
She was then asked whether she still enjoys exercising. “I do. I suppose it’s my drug of choice. Exercise is the thing that literally makes me high. I have times when I would rather do anything, but once I finish a workout, I’d happily do it all over again,” she added.
And, seven month on from brain tumour surgery, Davina is fighting fit. In April, she revealed she’d got the ‘all clear‘ and was well and truly on the road to recovery.
Davina McCall returns with Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace tonight (June 18) at 9pm on ITV1.
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