Amanda Holden inspired me to dress inappropriately, says David McCall, 57

DAVINA McCall doesn’t care one bit if you think her skirt is too short. In fact, at 57, she’s decided the shorter the better!

“I’m enjoying dressing inappropriately for my age,” she says, with a cheeky smile.

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“It feels really good. I wouldn’t have dressed like this in my 30s or 40s. I dressed so conservatively then.”

And she has one person to thank for blazing a trail when it comes to dressing sexily as an older woman – Amanda Holden.

“Amanda broke the ice wearing unbelievably sexy outfits on her stonking-hot body during Britain’s Got Talent. I was thinking: ‘Thank you, Amanda,’ because she was making it OK for someone in midlife to look banging hot. So when I started wearing ‘inappropriate clothes for my age’, she’d already helped me with that. She was doing it way before me.”

Though judging by our shoot today, Amanda is not the only one with an incredible physique.

Just three years away from her 60th birthday, Davina is in the best shape of her life.

‘People think I’m full of motivation, but I’m not always’

She’s disciplined with her diet, but like all of us, she can’t always find the time (or be bothered) to exercise.

“I like to inspire people,” she says. “People think I exercise every day or I’m full of motivation, but I’m not always. I’m like everyone else and try to fit it in where I can. If I do a workout and post it online and someone replies saying: ‘Thank you, you’ve motivated me to work out,’ I feel brilliant.”

It’s not just Amanda that Davina is grateful to for helping alter the TV landscape, where it used to be the case that women got to a certain age and were replaced by a younger version, while men were allowed to grow old on screen.

“All of us women in our 50s now, we look at each other with enormous respect. Jo Whiley, Zoe Ball, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman – it is miraculous that we’re all still here and relevant and having fun. And I think that’s key. We’ve loved our lives and we are constantly evolving, all of us.”

And with a career spanning 30 years, the public have been there through Davina’s good and bad times, from opening up about her heroin addiction to divorce from husband Matthew Robertson and finding love again with her hairdresser and partner of five years, Michael Douglas, 51.

“I don’t hide anything,” Davina says. “You can’t be famous and think: ‘Oh, it’s not going to come out.’ It will. I tell everybody everything because at least it’s my truth.”

She was awarded a Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards in September – something she still can’t believe happened.

“No one told me in advance,” she says.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was ugly crying and wearing a rubber outfit and going: ‘Where can I wipe my hands?’ Everyone knew except me – Michael, even Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary. They were sitting behind me, so I was going: ‘You bastards.’ I couldn’t absorb it at all on the night. It was a really special evening.”

With her success, you could be forgiven for thinking she’s never made a bad career choice, but Davina shakes her head.

“I did a show called Davina [a chat show in 2006] and it was universally panned. I hadn’t experienced anything like that in my career ever. It was pretty hard. I was 18 weeks pregnant with Chester, sitting in my car thinking: ‘You’ve got to stop this because the stress is not good for the baby.’

“So I had a really big cry, then I went into Sainsbury’s and a couple of people came over saying: ‘Are you OK?’ But rather than feeling embarrassed, I found great comfort. After that I thought: ‘It was a mistake. This isn’t the end. I’m just going to carry on.’ That was my toughest time.”

Davina worries there’s now no room for flops for younger stars.

“Nowadays, you make one mistake and you’re gone. People searching through Twitter for bad things they’ve said in the past – I’m not sure I agree with that. We need to give people scope to change.”

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Change is something that’s constantly on Davina’s mind. She made a career pivot to raising awareness of the menopause, which she describes as her “life purpose”.

She’s recently released an updated version of her book Menopausing in paperback.

It’s led her to launch her podcast Begin Again, empowering people to embrace midlife as their most transformative era.

“In the past, people thought this second chapter in our life was a time to wind down and prepare for death, but people are so different now. We’re thinking: ‘This is our time.’ It is about beginning again,” she says.

Davina has begun again many times. Her battle with heroin addiction has been well documented.

She first tried the drug when she was just 16, was an addict by her 20s, and almost died of an overdose. But she got clean and landed her first TV job on MTV Europe in 1994.

Since then, she’s focused on fitness, podcasting and changing the conversation around menopause.

“Women have a physical thing when your body is saying: ‘Right, you are moving into the next thing,’ and you have no choice. I didn’t want more children, but when I hit menopause, I grieved the idea I couldn’t have them. I didn’t want to be seen as ‘old’. But I’ve realised it’s fun being older. You might not be pert, bouncy and trendy, but you can be naughty, irreverent and wear what you like in a way that you can’t when you’re younger. I am enjoying who I am now.”

And is she starting to contemplate hitting the big 6-0?

“Me and Michael have spent a lot of time planning my 60th. He’s six years younger, but that’s good because I need someone to wheel the wheelchair,” she laughs.

“Every decade I’ve hit, I have tried to embrace it. In my 60s, I’d like to do more to help people and leave them better than I found them.”

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While Davina is head over heels in love with Michael (they cannot stop flirting on the Fabulous shoot), she’s desperate to help those in later life find love again, with her heart-warming ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad, where children set their parents up.

“You are so invested in the relationships between the children and their parents,” she says.

“It’s fascinating to see the kids learn about their mum and dads and the lives they had before them. I also would love to do My Grandad, Your Grandma because 70 to me looks young now. My stepmum is 75 – she went to Dublin to see Coldplay, then she went to Valencia to learn Spanish. She is absolutely living her life.”

Another thing that helps Davina feel young is spending time with Maya Jama, 30, who has replaced Rita Ora on The Masked Singer panel – alongside Davina, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan.

“Maya is the nicest person,” she says.

“What I love about her is she treats me as an equal, not as an older statesman. She sits between me and Jonathan, which could be daunting, but they get on like a house on fire.”

Davina cherishes being mum to her three kids, Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18. But she’s dealing with an almost empty nest now – Holly lives in Manchester and Tilly has been in Australia for three years, leaving Chester at home.

“The girls are gone and Chester is my focus, but he’s just turned 18 so is very much: ‘I don’t want your attention.’ He gives me the bare minimum when I ask anything, but then I see him with Michael and his boys and he’s so chatty. And I think: ‘Oh good.’

You have to say to your kids: ‘If you get into trouble, talk to me, I’ll never judge you’

Davina McCall

Davina and Michael’s kids all get on well, and they credit taking their relationship very slowly at the start.

“Because they’re all adults now, it’s so easy. We’re lucky in a way that we didn’t try to blend families [until 2022]. We waited until the kids were older,” she says.

They’re one big happy family now, and enjoyed a summer trip to Ibiza together – Davina even reused an outfit from The Masked Singer for the occasion.

“It was so much fun,” she says. “We went to Elrow at Amnesia and it was off the charts.”

Drug-taking is prolific in Ibiza – given Davina’s past, does she ever warn her kids about the dangers?

“Oh, they all know it,” she says.

“I did that when they were 12. You can’t tell your kids: ‘Don’t take drugs.’ You have to educate them and say: ‘If you get into trouble, talk to me. I’ll never judge you.’ They’ve all ended up brilliant and sensible, and way better than I was. That was my fear: ‘Can I get them to 18?’ But I have and they’re amazing.”

And now they are all adults, Davina’s started thinking about the next step – grandkids.

“I am so excited for that,” she admits.

“I’m looking at babies now and imagining they’re my grandchildren. You can enjoy it a bit more. I do feel like Chester got the best of me. I was learning with the girls, then I got to Chester and thought: ‘I know what I’m doing.’”

However, once he goes to uni next year, Davina is worried that the workaholic in her will take over.

“I love my job, and the danger is I don’t stop. So I’m going to try to learn a new skill. I’d like to be a death doula, which is someone who supports the family when their loved one dies. I feel like it’s an honour to be there. I wouldn’t want money. I want to help.

“I’m a work in progress, but there’s always more to do. I’m attacking life in a completely different way now.”

• New episodes of Davina McCall: Begin Again are available Thursdays, 8am, on all podcast providers.