Davina McCall has been candid about being 'terrified' of growing old, but sheds light on the poignant reasons she's brushing those fears aside to embrace every moment.
Davina McCall has been a major player in destigmatising conversations around menopause and perimenopause, while shedding a positive light on the anti-ageing narrative pushed on women. It hasn't been easy for the star to embrace getting older, and she's been very open about the difficulties she had in changing her mindset about the process. However, along with her recent health difficulties - the presenter recently had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst - Davina has many reasons to cast aside her fears of advancing in years.
As Davina approached 50, she recalls her fears of ageing reaching quite a peak. "Can I be honest, I was petrified of turning 50," Davina admitted as per PS. She continued, "When you're in your 20s and 30s, everybody's asking when you're going to have a baby or get married. And now [that I'm in my 50s] nobody asks that but instead it's this person's died, that person's died."
The star turned this on its head and decided that conversations about people around her passing away were going to happen as a natural part of life. However, she used this as a reason not to feel sad about the process, but to "Grow old disgracefully," asserting that she'll definitely be taking the positive route of "Flying the flag to show you that getting older is actually quite good fun."
Also concerned that she might become "boring," Davina turned to another part of her life for inspiration to "Try and be naughtier as I've got older," reflecting on the difficult relationship she had with her late mother to do so. Part of her plan to grow old "disgracefully," stems from how her mum lived her life, which was in a way Davina hasn't always understood but has now reconciled with.
The presenter didn't live with her mum, and always dreamed of having somebody to mother her properly. "My birth mum was an alcoholic and we had a difficult relationship," she explains, adding, "I never lived with her. You'd think she was amazing because she's mad and really fun and kind of outrageous looking. But she wasn't brilliant at mothering. I always kind of wanted a cardigan-wearing Angela Lansbury to give me some food and just sit down and ask me out or to just be proud of me, I guess. But she just wasn't that person."
However, now Davina understands more about menopause through her own lived experience, she believes the reasons for her mum's behaviour is menopause-related - she'd had a hysterectomy at the age of 28, bringing on early menopause. "She didn't have any HRT, and as a 28-year-old woman, you really need oestrogen in your body to feed everything," Davina explains, adding, "The underlying anger she had, the self-medicating, the pain — suddenly it all fell into place."
Davina can now look back and feel peace about the difficulties her mother had, and celebrate parts of her personality. At a party, the star recalls thinking of her mum and how she would've been at home at such an outrageous event. "I had a big cry and suddenly thought, she is in me, even though I've wanted to deny it. My wanting to grow old disgracefully, or wear crazy clothes, that's my mum in me. She's given me the fun side of me that I really like, I need to thank her for that," she concludes in such a pertinent sentiment.
