Davina McCall says she still can’t believe she landed her toy boy hubby Matthew Robertson
And the This Time Next Year presenter also reveals she could have died if she hadn't stopped taking drugs
This week TV Magazine get to know Davina McCall...
The first thing I do in the morning is open my eyes, look at my husband Matthew and think: ‘How the hell did I land that guy?!’ He’s still smokin’ hot! And he’s a toy boy – two years younger. Always gonna be that way. It’s amazing.
My favourite joke is one that a five year old told me. I didn’t get it – that’s what was so funny about it. “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Ipe. Ipe who?” This kid just started laughing when I said it. I was like: “What?” I got a bit annoyed with a five year old [looks appalled] – ’cos he’s crying with laughter that I didn’t get it. I’m like: “How can a child get this and I can’t?” Then I finally got it and I was like: “Oh my God, that is so funny! Well done.” There is something everlastingly funny about pooing and farting.
My daughter Holly [15] is very much like I was when I was a kid. But the great thing is that she is a lot more grounded and secure than I was. I was often doing things for effect or reassurance, or my actions were driven bya fear of abandonment. I look at her and think: ‘There’s none of that with you. You’re just happy.’ She’s really funny. She pulls loads of stupid faces – her Snapchat pictures are of her with triple chins or taken up her nostrils.
My first day at a new school in London was my worst. I turned up straight from the countryside. I had a pudding-bowl haircut and a perfect school uniform: A-line skirt, white socks pulled up to the knee. I was so ‘from the shires’. I walked into this classroom and there was a skinhead in the corner, a punk over here, a gang over there. I thought: ‘I’m gonna die.’ The next day, my skirt was pulled in and up, my socks were a different colour, I bought a bag from Millets and put a load of stickers of artists on it that I’d never heard of before: Aswad, The Sex Pistols and Mikey Dread. I guess that taught me to adapt – sharpish.
I once got stuck in a lift in Morgans Hotel in New York. It was six o’clock in the morning. I was with a band, Public Image Ltd, my boyfriend at the time and a lot of really out-of-it people. Basically, we’d got too many people in the lift. We were all cheek to cheek. It went down half a floor and then got stuck – it was just the worst feeling. We had to be rescued. They had to pull open the doors and pull us up. It was terrifying. We all sobered up very fast. That totally ‘harshed our mellow’.
The day that changed my life would probably be the day that I decided to stop taking drugs [Davina was addicted to heroin in her twenties]. It is that simple. It was a Sliding Doors moment. If I hadn’t gone down that path, my life would be very different now. I have plenty of friends who didn’t take the other path and aren’t with us any more. I could have been one of them.
My phone’s screensaver is my kids [Tilly, 13, Chester, 10, and Holly]. They’re snuggled up on the sofa. It’s very hard for me to get all three of them to do a photograph without one pulling a stupid face. It’s a family trait. If we’re all together, my husband Matthew’s got his finger up one of their noses or something’s going on. I’m shouting: “Will you please try to look nice!” And they think that’s even funnier.
I have an amazing fan who has my face and autograph tattooed on his leg. He’s my No.1 fan. He’s really sweet – a young gay guy who’s got a lovely boyfriend.
When I get to 50, I really want to be in this band, Mutton, I’ve been talking about. It’s me and Brix Smith [from The Fall]. We’ll both sing. It’s going to be so embarrassing that my children will be banned from watching it. They will be horrified, but it won’t actually be Mummy – I’ll be in my Mutton persona. I will be dry-humping anything that moves.
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