Davina McCall reveals heartbreaking plans she made for her children before brain tumour surgery

6 February 2025, 09:04 | Updated: 6 February 2025, 09:51

Davina McCall has revealed she wrote letters to her three children in case she passed away during surgery on a brain tumour last year.

The former Big Brother host, 57, revealed in November that a colloid cyst had been found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work.

She had surgery to remove the tumour, and spent time in intensive care before recovering from home with the help of her partner, celebrity hairdresser Michael Douglas.

Speaking on her podcast Begin Again, McCall revealed she was so scared for her life that she wrote letters to her children in case the surgery didn’t go to plan.

She said: "I did go and address my will and make sure that was airtight. I talked to Michael about my wishes. I wrote letters of wishes to all the children and put those in my will."

Read more: Davina McCall going ‘off grid’ as she is undergoing brain surgery after finding ‘very rare’ tumour

She said she wanted to "try and find a way that they would all find a way through if I didn't make it".

McCall added: "It was funny with Chester because he's the youngest. He's 18, and it was only when I came home, he was like: 'I didn't realise how serious it was.' I said: 'Well, I'm pleased, you know, because look, here I am and it all went well and it was fine.'

"But in a way, there was part of me that was thinking: 'If it hadn't been fine, he would have struggled the most.'"

The beloved presenter grappled with how the tumour seemed to dominate her life in the wake of its discovery.

She said: "I felt like this thing had taken control of me and I was so angry about that. I couldn't... I couldn't let it go. (I thought) 'How dare you control my daily life like this and make me feel every day like I'm in danger?'

"I have newfound enormous sympathy for people who have benign brain tumours. Because you think... I have had so many people say to me: 'Well, at least it was benign.' And you think: 'You have no idea that benign brain tumours can still kill you.'

"It's just, you don't know when it's going to happen. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen in years' time. It's different to cancer, but it is also awful. A benign does not mean fine.

"Living with that uncertainty is pretty terrifying. I know enough now to know that, look, I am healthy. I look after myself. I exercise.

"I've got all of these things going for me, but stress is a killer. And I want to de-stress my life. I do not want to live with the stress of thinking any minute, you know, I could be taken out by something."

After first sharing the diagnosis last year, the star revealed her chances of having the tumour were "three in a million."

She explained she had discovered the tumour several months ago following a complimentary health scan in return for a menopause talk.