{"id":802797,"date":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802797\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T23:12:10","slug":"davina-mccall-could-not-remember-own-name-after-brain-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802797\/","title":{"rendered":"Davina McCall could not remember own name after brain surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Davina McCall<\/a> has said she could not remember her own name following brain surgery.<\/p>\n

The TV presenter said she suffered from symptoms similar to \u201cadvanced Alzheimer\u2019s\u201d after the operation to remove a benign tumour in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I\u2019d had my brain tumour taken out, I had advanced Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a>, so I couldn\u2019t remember anything,\u201d she told Paloma Faith\u2019s podcast Mad, Sad and Bad, adding that 2025 had been the \u201chardest\u201d year of her life.<\/p>\n

The former Big Brother host said a member of staff would ask her each day whether she could remember her name, to which she would respond: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presenter revealed in November 2024 that doctors had found a rare 14mm brain tumour, called a colloid cyst, during a health check as part of her menopause advocacy work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The operation was successful and in April last year she told followers that her final MRI scan had shown the tumour had disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came out of the operation, I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d had an operation,\u201d the 58-year-old recalled, adding that it took her six months before she could watch a film because she \u201ccouldn\u2019t remember what had happened in the movie 15 minutes before\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[When reading] a book, I couldn\u2019t remember the page before,\u201d she said. She recollects her husband, Michael Douglas, a hair stylist, would leave the room to go to the toilet and on his return she would say: \u201c\u2018Oh my God, you\u2019re here\u2019, and I didn\u2019t know he\u2019d been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Music healed me\u2019<\/p>\n

McCall\u2019s memory showed signs of improvement in October 2025 with the help of music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did singing lessons. That was my mind physio. Music healed me and last October was the first time I woke up and went, \u2018Oh my God, I remember what I did yesterday\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While still recovering from brain surgery in November last year, McCall revealed that she had also undergone surgery for breast cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky, but I am so relieved to have had it removed, and to know that it hasn\u2019t spread,\u201d she said after undergoing a lumpectomy.<\/p>\n

McCall said she was driven to have it checked after seeing posters urging women to \u201ccheck your breasts\u201d while working on ITV\u2019s Lorraine show.<\/p>\n

The presenter previously suggested surviving her brain tumour<\/a> was the \u201cgreatest thing\u201d that had ever happened to her.<\/p>\n

In May last year, she told Women\u2019s Health UK: \u201cWhen I got this brain tumour, I said to Michael: \u2018If I make it, this will be the greatest thing that\u2019s ever happened to me\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the learnings, yes \u2013 and because of the places I\u2019ve had to go to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of skull removed<\/p>\n

A benign brain tumour is not cancerous, but it can still cause health issues if it presses on vital structures such as nerves and blood vessels as it grows.<\/p>\n

Non-cancerous brain tumours can affect people of any age, but are more common in adults over the age of 50.<\/p>\n

The NHS says symptoms can include persistent headaches, seizures, blurred or double vision, drowsiness, changes in behaviour or personality, and problems with speech, movement and balance.<\/p>\n

The craniotomy McCall underwent involved part of the skull being removed to remove the tumour.<\/p>\n

McCall was awarded an MBE in the King\u2019s birthday honours for services to broadcasting in 2023 and was given a special recognition prize at the National Television Awards in 2024 for her broadcasting career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davina McCall has said she could not remember her own name following brain surgery. The TV presenter said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[915,8669,2199,3742,96,59,657,50,5438,56,225,54,55],"class_list":["post-802797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-brain-tumours","tag-breast-cancer","tag-davina-mccall","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-menopause","tag-news","tag-standard","tag-uk","tag-uk-news","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}