Davina McCall has shared her reaction to being diagnosed with breast cancer just months after a routine mammogram came back ‘clear’ – admitting it triggered a violent outburst when she got home.
The 58-year-old learnt she had the disease in November last year after checking her breasts for lumps during a break from filming The Masked Singer at ITV.
Her diagnosis came nearly a year to the day of having a benign brain tumour removed.
Her now husband, hairdresser Michael Douglas, was by her side when she found out that she has the disease, and she shared that he offered her an unexpected outlet for her emotions when they got home.
‘He was like, “okay, so look, I’m just letting you know if you if you want to kind of get angry with me or just like, tell me you’re angry. Like, you know, I’m here”‘, she said.
Davina, keeping a brave face, then told him that she was ‘fine’.
‘I was like, “I’m not angry. It’s fine. It’s meant to be. I’ve obviously got to learn something”, [I was] trying to be positive, right?
‘And he said, “but if you were angry, it’s okay. You can, you can be angry”.’
Speaking on Heart Breakfast, Davina admitted she initially tried to be positive
Despite her initial refusal to admit her true feelings, he again reassured her and eventually the rage poured out of her.
‘Then I got really angry, and I got the cushions out and the pillow [punching them] and that was quite therapeutic,’ she said.
Speaking on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston on Friday morning, Davina said that the cancer diagnosis couldn’t have come at a worse time.
In November, she shared the news on Instagram, explaining the cancer had been caught ‘very very early’ but would still require radiotherapy.
She recalled first noticing the lump while filming The Masked Singer, and being prompted to get checked by a sign in the Lorraine studio toilets. A biopsy confirmed breast cancer, which she had removed in a lumpectomy.
‘I spent 2025 trying to get over the symptoms of the brain tumour,’ she said. ‘It was really hard on Michael and me. It was a difficult year.
‘Then in October, almost two years to the month since I found out about the brain tumour, I got breast cancer.
‘It felt like being punched in the face by the universe. I was just beginning to feel like myself again.’
Davina underwent a short course of radiotherapy in January 2026, and is now ‘cancer free’.
She added: ‘But I was very lucky and this is a reminder to all women to check yourself. I found a lump in October last year and I had a mammogram in August.
‘Don’t think, “I had a mammogram recently, it can’t be cancer,” because it could be. Really check. If you’ve got something, get it looked at. It takes seconds.’
Doctors urge women to be particularly aware of lumps that are painless, hard and irregularly shaped.
They might not be visible but can usually be felt when checking the breasts.
Symptoms of breast cancer to look out for include lumps and swellings, dimpling of the skin, changes in colour, discharge and a rash or crusting around the nipple
The NHS advises women to know how their breasts usually look and feel, use their fingers to examine the entire breast and armpit area, and check for changes in shape, skin texture, or discharge.
Women aged 50 to 70 are also advised to attend routine breast cancer screening.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Each year in the UK, there are more than 55,000 new cases, with 11,500 deaths. In the US, it strikes 266,000 people annually and kills 40,000.
Since her double whammy of health woes, Davina says she no longer fears dying – and it has made her determined to ‘de-stress’ her life.
She said: ‘I was already a clean eater – I eat nauseatingly clean – and I exercise, but I want to get negativity out of my life.
‘I deleted accounts that made me sad or angry. My “for you” page is now puppies, babies and hairdos.’
On her recovery, she added: ‘I had a scan yesterday and felt anxious – something called “scanxiety” – but there was nothing there. I’m not afraid of dying anymore.
‘It feels liberating. I am well. I am bouncy and annoyingly chipper. It makes you so grateful. I got a second go in life and I’m so lucky. Enjoy life and go big.’
In November 2024, Davina shocked fans when she revealed that she was undergoing brain surgery to remove a colloid cyst, a rare non-cancerous tumour that affects just three in a million people..
The cysts are filled with a thick, gel-like substance called colloid, and are often asymptomatic and found incidentally during imaging tests.
If symptoms do occur as the tumour grows, they are commonly reported to include headaches that are most severe in the morning upon waking, nausea and blurry vision. Vertigo and double vision are other key signs.
At the time, Davina explained that while she was at no immediate risk, doctors were concerned that the 14mm tumour could grow larger and cause complications.
