DAVINA McCall has revealed she’s stepping back from full-time work after her shock breast cancer diagnosis last year.
The TV presenter, 58, stunned fans when she told in November how she’d been quietly battling the disease – less than a year after having surgery to remove a brain tumour.
Davina has now admitted that having two major health scares so close together served as a wake-up call.
Appearing on the Miss Me? podcast, she told hosts Miquita Oliver and Jordan Stephens: “Change is something that all my life, I spent running away from.
“I absolutely hated it. Change was something that really frightened me. I always loved the status quo, knowing what I was doing and feeling safe in that.
“What has happened, actually, is that I have realised that all my really big growth has come from change – and often quite painful change.”
Referring to her former addictions to heroin and alcohol, Davina continued: “I had an amazing breakthrough when I got clean in the early nineties.
“I had another huge breakthrough after I had my brain tumour removed. I realised that I needed to de-stress my life.
“Interestingly, I realised that – but then the breast cancer, which I thought was a very, very frightening thing, made me realise that I really, really had to put that into place. And I have now.”
Opening up about her plan to step back from work slightly, Davina said: “I’m going to work a four-day week. I feel so much better now about my life and trying to get it more balanced.
“So now, really, as I hit this stage of my life, I want to take more care of myself. That is my latest project: me, because I can’t take care of anyone else if I’m not okay.”
Last month mother-of-three Davina secretly married her celebrity hairdresser partner Michael Douglas.
Sources at the time told The Sun how the couple had opted to keep Friday’s celebration “very low key” before attending a friend’s much larger wedding the following day — their first public outing as husband and wife.
A friend added: “Their wedding was perfect, exactly what they wanted. They chose a small venue close to their home, and just invited about ten of their friends and relatives to be there with them.
“It was very intimate and everyone who attended is very special in their lives.”
They went on: “They’ve been through a huge amount in recent months, with Davina’s health, and it just felt right to formalise their marriage. They didn’t see the point in waiting.”
