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Davina McCall has revealed that she developed symptoms of advanced Alzheimer’s after her brain tumour was removed in 2024 and couldn’t remember the names of those around her.
The TV presenter, 58, shared in November of that year that doctors had found a rare 14mm benign tumour, called a colloid cyst, on her brain and required surgery to take it out.
The operation went well and in April last year, she told fans that her final MRI scan had shown that the tumour had completely disappeared.
Speaking about her recovery in a new interview, McCall shared that removing the tumour initially impacted her memory quite significantly.
Davina McCall with husband Michael Douglas (Getty)
“After I’d had my brain tumour taken out, I had advanced Alzheimer’s, so I couldn’t remember anything,” she told Paloma Faith on the Mad, Sad Bad podcast, adding that 2025 was the “hardest year” of her life.
“When I came out of the operation, I didn’t know I’d had an operation. The staff came in every day, and they’d go, ‘What’s my name?’ and I’d go, ‘I don’t know.’
She said that her husband, hair stylist Michael Douglas, “would come and visit for two hours, and he’d go to the loo and come back, and I’d go, ‘Oh my God, you’re here,’ and I didn’t know he’d been there”.
The former Big Brother host added that she “couldn’t watch a movie for six months” as she wouldn’t be able to remember what had happened 15 minutes before. “A book, I couldn’t remember the page before,” she said.
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McCall’s memory finally started to improve in October 2025 with the help of music. “I did singing lessons. That was my mind physio. Music healed me and last October was the first time I woke up and went, ‘Oh my God, I remember what I did yesterday,’” she said.
While recovering from her brain surgery, McCall was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump while filming The Masked Singer.
Davina McCall said that she couldn’t watch films because she would struggle to remember what had happened in them (Mad, Sad, Bad podcast)
She shared the news in November 2025, having undergone a lumpectomy to remove the breast cancer. “It was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky, but I am so relieved to have had it removed, and to know that it hasn’t spread,” she said at the time.
“My lymph nodes were clear. I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy, and then I am on my journey to try and stop it ever coming back.”
In April this year, the presenter received the “all clear”. According to the NHs, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer developed by women in the UK , although anyone can get it. Those at a higher risk of developing it include people over the age of 50, those with dense breast tissue or a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.
McCall is now back to work following her health setbacks, with the presenter hosting her podcast, Begin Again, and still a member of the judging panel on ITV’s The Masked Singer.