Davina McCall has acquired a new insight into love during her time at the helm of upcoming dating show, My Mum Your Dad. Speaking to Grazia at the National Television Awards, the ITV host, 55, recalls what the experience taught her, specifically when it comes to moving on from the past.
'Sometimes, these patterns of behaviour that we pick up from being hurt in our life is the thing that holds us back from finding happiness in the end,' she reflects.
'It’s so hard because if you’ve been hurt a lot, you build up walls. But these walls don’t let anybody else in - it's so scary trusting again. Then you behave a bit weirdly because you’re automatically assuming that this person is going to hurt you, just like everybody else.'
My Mum Your Dad sees Davina - who has been dating hairstylist Michael Douglas since 2019 - support a group of who she calls 'mid-lifers' as they search for love during a countryside retreat. With their different backgrounds and experiences, the presenter feels it presents an opportunity for fellow mid-lifers watching at home to relate to some of their insecurities - and their bid to find a partner by traditional means.
She explains, 'Watching somebody else go through it [battling trust issues] might help other people who are like that themselves go, “Hang on a minute, that’s me. I do that.” You have got to trust.
'But it also shows you that with dating apps nowadays, there’s so much pressure to snog on a first date or to make another date, or have sex in the first week. When you think about these people, they had two weeks of 24 hours a day together. Finally, after a couple of weeks, people started to trust or believe that other people were good people. It’s so engrained sometimes, and when the damage runs deep and you’re so out of practice, it’s like, "How do I snog somebody? Oh my god I’ve forgotten how to snog someone!"'
Davina - who has been married twice before, first to Andrew Leggett in 1997 and then to Matthew Robinson between 2000 and 2017 - has long championed 'mid-life' representation on telly.
She recalls the moment she met the singletons, saying, 'The first thing I thought was, “These are my people.” And I also thought, "God, where have you been? You are just so not represented on telly and you’re ace, all of you.” It’s so heartwarming seeing people that aren’t really given the time of day but who are really bloody interesting.'
The TV star - who co-parents Holly, 21, Chester, 16 and 19-year-old Tilly with ex Matthew - also explained how My Mum Your Dad is its own realm of reality shows.
'When you watch dating shows with lots of young people in, there’s lots of sex going on, but there’s not much rich conversation,' she considers. 'The conversation [in My Mum Your Dad] is so rich and people have been through so much – it’s like a therapy session.
'But also something that makes you emotionally invested in it is you want to know how these people get on. There's no prize money, the prize is love. The prize is getting to hold someone’s hand for the rest of your life. I can’t think of a better prize than that.'