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He was there on the other side of her salon chair for decades and listened to her woes.
But it is only now that Davina McCall’s hairdresser-turned-boyfriend can be honest about finding her ‘annoying’ since her brain operation last year has caused short-term memory loss for the TV presenter.
Posing on the cover of Good Housekeeping UK, the 57-year-old told the publication: ‘Michael (Douglas) has been mega helpful with me on all of this. It’s exhausting looking after someone so vulnerable and needy.
She continued: ‘At one point, I thought his behaviour was a bit odd, but I couldn’t remember why it felt odd.
‘I said to him, “Michael, I’ve noticed you don’t want to be around me much. If you feel differently about me, it’s fine, I understand.”
‘He said, “It’s because you’re annoying at the moment,” and I’ve never been so relieved to be told that I’m annoying.
‘I knew I was, because I’d repeat the same questions over and over again. We both laughed hard at that.’
Last November, the Long Lost Families presenter underwent an operation to remove a benign colloid cyst from her brain after it was found during a routine check-up while she was advocating for menopause health.
A scan revealed she had a rare type of tumour that ‘very, very rarely’ can ’cause sudden death’ for which she underwent successful surgery to remove the tumour via a craniotomy.
But a side effect was temporary short-term memory loss, which she said was ‘improving every day’.
By April 2025, following a final MRI scan, she announced the tumour ‘is not coming back’
For her, it was a terrifying ordeal and she is incredibly grateful – and relieved – to have got through it.
Michael was at her bedside as she recovered and took to social media at the time to keep Davina’s fans updated with her progress.
But he has also been her rock for recovery, which she said included going back to work after three months convalescing.
As a self-confessed workaholic, Davina needed little encouragement to get back in front of the cameras as soon as possible.
And so after three months convalescing, she returned to film the ITV series, Long Lost Family. It was, she said, ‘like coming home’.
She told Daily Mail: ‘Michael knew it would help me, so he supported me in going back. It was a terrifying to go through, but Michael knew it would be what would make me happiest. He was absolutely right. I had three months off, but that was it.’
Michael and the BBC presenter became a couple in 2019 and publicly confirmed their relationship the same year after she had split from her husband of 17 years, Matthew Robertson, in 2017.
The My Mum, Your Dad host found love again with her hairdresser, and the pair look after the children she shares with her ex-husband – Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18.
Davina previously told Daily Mail: ‘He knew everything about me before we got together.
‘We just told each other everything because we didn’t fancy each other, so you could be really honest, more honest than you would if you fancied someone.’
Davina’s full interview can be read now in the October issue of Good Housekeeping UK.
