Davina McCall enjoyed a light-hearted moment with her youngest daughter on Tuesday, shortly after revealing she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The TV presenter, still recovering from brain surgery to remove a benign tumour, originally confirmed the unexpected diagnosis in an Instagram post on Saturday evening.
But the mood was rather more upbeat as McCall, 58, joined daughter Tilly – one of three children with her former husband Matthew Robertson – for a TikTok video, filmed at their family home in Kent.
McCall was seen dancing alongside the 22-year old to uptempo house track If You Don’t Want This by ManLikeTwin as they stood in their spacious kitchen.
The post was subsequently shared by Tilly, who wrote: ‘Always putting mother dearest onto bangers. She was really getting into it, bless her.’
Addressing her breast cancer diagnosis with Instagram followers on Saturday evening, McCall admitted she found the lump whilst checking herself after being seeing posters for Lorraine Kelly’s lifesaving Change + Check campaign at ITV studios.
Davina McCall enjoyed a light-hearted moment with her youngest daughter on Tuesday, shortly after revealing she has been diagnosed with breast cancer
McCall was seen dancing alongside the 22-year old to uptempo house track If You Don’t Want This by ManLikeTwin as they stood in their spacious kitchen
McCall stressed her cancer had been caught ‘very very early’ but would still require five days of radiotherapy in January as an ‘insurance policy’ to remain cancer free.
She said: ‘So I underwent a biopsy and it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.
‘It was very very small so I got it very very early, which is incredibly lucky, but I am so relieved that I have had it removed and that it hasn’t spread.
‘I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that and I feel in a much more positive place now.’
She captioned the clip: ‘The message here, is know your boobs. Notice any changes. Don’t procrastinate. Get your free checkups. And never ignore a niggle. Sending out huge love.’
The star had initially revealed her diagnosis during a charity her Dine With Davina charity event which left the gathered crowd gasping.
She said: ‘Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee I did that.
‘It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’.’
The mood was upbeat as McCall, 58, joined daughter Tilly – one of three children with her former husband Matthew Robertson – for the TikTok video
The post was subsequently shared by Tilly across her social media platforms on Tuesday
Following the announcement fans and famous friends rushed to the comments to the star the star their best wishes.
McCall announced in November 2024 that she had been diagnosed with a colloid cyst, a rare type of benign brain tumour.
After a gruelling six-hour operation to remove the 14mm cyst from her brain, she revealed she was cancer-free.
The presenter is now looking ahead to a more positive 2026 and her wedding to long-term partner Michael Douglas.
Douglas, a celebrity hairstylist who originally met McCall while they worked together on reality show Big Brother, proposed during a romantic summer break in Ibiza.
‘It was a total surprise,’ she told HELLO! ‘Michael is very funny and had spent the past two years getting down on bended knee and tying an imaginary shoelace on my finger.
On Saturday, McCall shared the news that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone surgery after finding a lump in her breast while filming The Masked Singer
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000
The presenter is now looking ahead to a more positive 2026 and her wedding to long-term partner Michael Douglas (pictured together in May)
‘When he actually did it for real, I was terrified he was joking. But he had prepared something incredibly thoughtful… I respected that.’
Close friends for years, the couple embarked on a relationship in 2019, shortly after her 18-year first marriage to Matthew Robertson – with whom she raises children Holly, Tilly and Chester – ended in divorce.
But while she looks to the future with her new fiancé, McCall – who once said she would never remarry – says she has no interest in wearing a conventional engagement ring.
‘I always said I don’t want one,’ she said, insisting that her wedding ceremony, when it happens, will be ‘very small and private.
‘Getting married at this stage of life is so different… it’s a big deal.’
