Davina McCall has spoken up about her battle with addiction, revealing that drugs used to fill a need in her heart.
The TV host previously said on The Diary Of A CEO podcast that she used to consume cannabis with her mother Florence when she was 12 years old.
Speaking about her upbringing and the influence of her mother, who was an alcoholic, Davina, 55, admitted that ‘there’s a lot of my mum in me.’
‘I don’t want to slag her off. She was my mum, warts and all. She wasn’t perfect. And she did make me, in so many ways, who I am.
‘She was party central, but also, I’m at pains to say, along with being quite a chaotic parent, she was really f***ing fun.’
Davina added to The Times ‘She was spontaneous. I’m not very good at that. I feel like I’m such a wild woman when I’m spontaneous because I’m a planner.
‘I like to be organised, because my mum was very chaotic. So it makes me feel safe when I go, “Ok, next Christmas we’ll…”, And I do that in January.’
Admitting that she probably never needed drugs, Davina then said, putting her hand on her heart: ‘But actually, I had a hole here and drugs filled that.
‘And eventually I’ve kind of put sticky tape over each f***ing hole, and probably each therapy session I go to is like another bit of tape.
‘Now I feel like it’s healed but I am still vigilant. I don’t ever want to drink again, that’s for sure. I love not drinking.’
Davina, who used to host Big Brother, also remembered waking someone up on the Tube to inform them they needed to attend an AA meeting.
She stated that she sat next to someone who slept with his head practically in her lap.
He was carrying a can of Special Brew, and Davina wondered when it would be best to wake him up and inform him he had a meeting.
‘I reasoned
I’d wait until two stops before mine and then I’d wake him up. Everybody else was avoiding sitting there,’ she shared.
‘So at Holborn, I woke him up and went, “Mate, are you all right?”, “Yeah, yeah.” I was like, “I don’t think you are. I don’t drink alcohol, and I think maybe you should think about stopping”.’
She also told him: ‘They give you biscuits at AA. It’s really nice. You get biscuits and a cup of tea.’
Davina was well aware that he would forget what she had told him.
‘But it might be like a seed I’ve planted.’
Worried about drugs?
Frank offers confidential advice about drugs and addiction (email frank@talktofrank.com, message 82111 or call 0300 123 6600) or the NHS has information about getting help.
Adfam has local groups for families affected by drugs and alcohol and DrugFam offers phone and email support to people affected by other people’s drug or alcohol misuse.
