If she’s not motivating us with her sunny attitude on one of her fitness DVDs, she’s flashing her winning smile on one of our favourite TV shows but, despite her positivity, even Davina McCall admits she found the extraordinary events of 2020 testing at times.
“I guess like a lot of people, I did my best to stay positive, keep my kids feeling positive, and make the best of it,” she tells Closer. “I’m very lucky because I live in the country, so there are places that I can get to that are quite isolated and lovely. At times I’d be thinking, ‘My God, what’s going to happen next? What’s going to happen to my kids?’ There were so many questions that no one could answer because nobody knew, but being in nature calmed me.”
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Davina, 53, admits her mental health suffered at times, but with three teenagers to look after – Holly, 19, Tilly, 18, and Chester, 14, her kids with ex-husband Matthew Robertson – she had no choice but to crack on.
The star – who keeps her children out of the public eye – says, “I definitely wobbled at times, but I had to buck up. There was no time to sit around and contemplate everything. When I wasn’t working, I was either cleaning, washing, at the supermarket, or home-schooling Chester. The kids were lovely and helped out when they could but, weirdly, life felt frantically busy.”
It’s hardly surprising. As well as doing some presenting on This Morning and working on her upcoming TV projects, Long Lost Family, Changing Rooms and the second series of popular show The Masked Singer, Davina also found time to launch a podcast with her partner, celebrity hairdresser Michael Douglas, 46, start a YouTube lifestyle channel and consistently update her fitness platform, Own Your Goals.
She says, “I would film bits of content until ten o’clock at night and then fall into bed. Own Your Goals was free to everybody for most of the first lockdown, and we had something like 250,000 people sign up for it. I was doing lots and lots of content to try to keep everybody feeling as good as they could. That’s the reason we’ve decided to do the 30-day reset challenge for January; to keep everyone motivated and focused. It’s a programme for mind and body and we all need a bit of that right now.”
And Davina says exercise really helped her during the hard months of lockdown.
She says, “I’m lucky that my main forms of exercise are home workouts and running, so I wasn’t missing the gym like a lot of people. The lovely thing was that my daughters and I were doing classes together at home, and we haven’t really done that before, so it was a real treat. Exercise definitely helped me.”
Like the rest of the nation, Davina indulged in that 2020 fail-safe, banana bread (lovingly made by her daughter), but she also ensured she stuck to a balanced diet to avoid the “lockdown load”.
Check out: Big Brother series 3 cast - where are they now?
CLOSER Big Brother series 3 where are they now? - slider
1 of 26Adele Roberts Big Brother
Adele was one of the original housemates and RAPPED in her audition tape saying why she deserved a place. Bold move. She was popular with her fellow housemates but sadly not with the voting public and was booted out with 62% of the vote on day 43. Still, what a stint.
2 of 26Adele Roberts 2018
A bone fide Big Brother success story, Adele is a DJ on Radio 1's Early Breakfast Show. We don't envy her the 4am starts though. Ouch. In November 2019, Adele became an I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! campmate.
3 of 26Alex Sibley Big Brother
When Alex entered the house, it was our strongly held belief that we was the fittest housemate EVER. It was a more innocent time. He came third with 27% of the vote.
4 of 26Alex Sibley 2018
Alex remains an enthusiastic Big Brother fan and recently appeared on Big Brother's Bit on the Side. He is still very hot.
5 of 26Alison Hammond Big Brother
Alison was one of the biggest personalities in the Big Brother house but her card was marked with Alex and Jonny when she admitted she peed in the shower. Bafflingly, she came in 11th place.
6 of 26Alison Hammond 2018
Alison certainly had the last laugh - she's been a regular on This Morning since 2003.
7 of 26Jade Goody Big Brother
Jade's time in the house was remarkable for her constant references to her "kebab", her inability to hold her booze, and her relentless good humour.
8 of 26Jade Goody 2008
Jade was a hugely popular TV personality when she left the house, but fell from grace following a controversial appearance on Celebrity Big Brother. She died in her sleep due to cervical cancer in March 2009.
9 of 26Kate Lawler Big Brother
Kate was the first female winner of Big Brother. Go, Kate!
10 of 26Kate Lawler 2018
Kate is now a DJ working on Virgin Radio in the afternoon slot (other cough Bauer cough radio stations are available).
11 of 26Lee Davey Big Brother
Lee spent 18 days in the house. We don't remember a single moment of it.
12 of 26Lee Davey 2018
These days Lee's looking hubba hubba HOT and appears to be spending a lot of time in the gym or at the football. Which is a pretty sweet life.
13 of 26Lynne Moncrieff Big Brother
Lynne was the first person to be evicted from the Big Brother house. It's got to be someone of course, but ouch.
14 of 26Lynne Moncrieff 2018
Lynne now appears to have a business selling her own art, and she has an AWESOME pack of pet dogs.
15 of 26Peter James "PJ" Ellis Big Brother
PJ's time in the house was made special by an oral sex act he received from Jade. He later denied it happened despite us all seeing it on the telly.
16 of 26Peter James "PJ" Ellis 2018
PJ is now a solicitor and lover of Brum.
17 of 26Sandy Cumming Big Brother
We rather liked stylish Sandy, However, he decided the Big Brother experience was not for him and left by scaling a wall on day 20 after urinating in a bin.
18 of 26Sandy Cumming 2002
This is the last known sighting of Sandy.
19 of 26Sophie Pritchard Big Brother
Sophie entered the house on day ten and fell for Lee although they didn't get together until they'd left the house. The two married and had a son together.
20 of 26Sophie Pritchard 2010
Sophie and Lee split ten months after their son was born and Sophie appears to have stayed out of the limelight.
21 of 26Spencer Smith Big Brother
Spencer came in ninth place. And that's about all we can recall of his time in the house. Soz, Spencer.
22 of 26Spencer Smith 2010
Spencer appeared in Celebrity Four Weddings in 2010. We haven't heard anything of him since.
23 of 26Sunita Sharma Big Brother
Sunita was one of the original housemates but walked on day seven saying that Big Brother "was not her party".
24 of 26Sunita Sharma 2018
Sunita returned to her old job and now works as a barrister,
25 of 26Tim Culley Big Brother
Tim and his, ahem, natural brunette locks entered the house as a replacement for Sandy. He will forever be remembered for trying to secretly shave his chest hair.
26 of 26Tim Culley 2018
Tim appears to have returned to South Africa and has a fancy job at a design company. He still references Big Brother in his company bio.
She reveals, “In the beginning, I was making big lunches and dinners for all of us, and I had to say to myself, ‘OK, you’ve still got to go lightweight on one of your meals.’ I don’t have that young metabolism any more.
“I tried to have a slightly lighter, healthier version of what I made the kids, or I did portion control. I try to give Chester carbs at every meal, so for my meal I would swap the carbs for a salad or have a smaller portion. I didn’t need to heap potatoes onto my plate at every mealtime.”
Davina’s current diet includes crumpets or granola for breakfast, chicken and vegetables or a large salad for lunch, and a one-pot wonder for dinner.
She says, “I love my one-pot meals because they’re so easy. I just bung everything in and you’ve got a lovely, balanced meal. I won’t pretend I was perfect during lockdown, but things could have been a lot worse!”
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But for Davina, one of the most important things she’s found is that exercising and eating well is to care for her body, rather than punish it.
She says, “My body is changing as I get older, but it’s about saying, ‘That’s great’ rather than thinking, ‘Oh my god, look at that.’ I love my tummy – it’s had three babies. I think, ‘Well done, tummy, for housing three enormous babies!’ I made a choice a long time ago to embrace everything. That’s not to say I don’t want to improve certain things, but I’m not going to be unkind to myself. Giving myself a hard time is not the thing that drives me on to exercise and eat well. Wanting to treat myself well is.”
Discover the perfect workout on the Own Your Goals app available on iOS and Android. To access your free trial go to Ownyourgoalsdavina.com. The Masked Singer is on ITV now.
Get the best celeb interviews in Closer magazine each week.