Highlights
- Davina McCall has opened up about severe memory problems following surgery to remove a benign brain tumour in 2025.
- The presenter said she could not remember visitors, follow films or recall the previous page of a book.
- She credited music with helping her recovery, describing it as her “mind physio”.
Davina McCall has spoken candidly about the severe memory problems she experienced after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour last year, revealing that she struggled to remember people, conversations and even what she had done moments earlier.
The 58-year-old presenter described 2025 as the “hardest year” for both herself and her partner, Michael Douglas, as she reflected on her recovery during an appearance on Paloma Faith’s Mad, Sad, Bad podcast.
“After I’d had my brain tumour taken out, I had advanced Alzheimer’s, so I couldn’t remember anything,” she said, using the phrase to describe the extent of her memory difficulties.
“When I came out of the operation, I didn’t know I’d had an operation,” she recalled.
McCall explained that hospital staff would visit her daily and ask her to identify them, but she could not remember their names.
She also struggled to recognise familiar people. Even when Douglas visited her, she would forget he had been there after he briefly left the room.
“Michael 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,” she said.
Davina McCall struggled to watch films after surgery
The memory problems affected McCall’s everyday life for months. She said she was unable to follow films because she could not remember what had happened earlier in the story.
“I couldn’t watch a movie for six months, because I couldn’t remember what had happened in the movie 15 minutes before. A book I couldn’t remember the page before,” she explained.
However, music became an important part of her recovery. McCall described it as her “mind physio”, saying it helped her work through the difficulties she was experiencing.
She recalled October 2025 as a turning point, when she woke up and realised she could remember the previous day.
“Music was what healed me. And last October was the first time I woke up, and I went, ‘Oh my God, I remember what I did yesterday,’” she said.
Davina McCall’s brain tumour and subsequent health battle
McCall underwent surgery to remove a 14mm benign brain tumour known as a colloid cyst. The presenter opted for a craniotomy to have it removed after carefully weighing up the risks.
Reflecting on the experience while hosting Comic Relief in March 2025, she described it as potentially the hardest thing she had ever been through. She also said the decision had made her think deeply about life and what mattered most when faced with difficult circumstances.
The following month, McCall shared the news that she had received the all-clear. She said her surgeon had removed the tumour during the operation and that it was not expected to return.
However, she faced another health challenge in November 2025, when she revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering a lump. She subsequently underwent another operation, describing the diagnosis as something that made her “really angry”.
Despite the difficult period, McCall has reflected on how the experience changed her outlook on life.
Speaking about her podcast Begin Again, she explained that facing the possibility of death during her brain tumour diagnosis had prompted her to look back on her life and consider whether she had any regrets.
She said she had reached a clear conclusion that she would not change anything, including the difficult experiences, because they had helped shape the person she is today.
