Red Moon
29-06-2008, 09:15 AM
Davina McCall reveals her marriage crisisBIG Brother frontwoman Davina McCall has spoken for the first time about the bust-ups that threatened to break up her marriage.
The TV host has admitted she and her husband, former Pet Rescue presenter Matthew Robertson, had counselling to save their relationship.
Davina, who has previously denied any problems in her eight-year marriage, said: “I like to talk things through and Matthew, like most men, doesn’t. He’ll generally say, ‘This is ridiculous,’ and walk out.
“I’m left huffing and thinking, ‘I need to talk about this!’ Under duress he’ll sit down and listen if he has to.”
In the interview, to be published this week, she admitted that five years ago they went to see a therapist, “not because we were splitting up, but because we were bickering a lot”.
BUST-UPS: With Matthew
Davina, 39, and Matthew, 40, who now have three children, had four therapy sessions.
“We had this stumbling block and every time we started talking about it, we’d have a row. So we needed a mediator to say, ‘Hang on a minute, let Matthew talk. Right Davina, how do you feel?’ Afterwards we were like, ‘Blimey. We’ve achieved in 90 minutes what we’ve been trying to talk about for six weeks,’ ” she said.
Davina stressed the therapy worked and now she couldn’t imagine life without Matthew.
She said: “It was the best thing we’ve done and I’ve recommended it to lots of friends. I can’t imagine ever being with anybody else now. I’m so ensconced with Matthew I don’t know what I’d do without him. I’d be lost.”
Davina also confessed she’s still haunted by her drink and drugs demons and religiously attends addiction recovery meetings, even though she’s been clean for 16 years. In the frank interview with Janet Street-Porter in Marie Claire magazine, she said: “I go twice a week. I’ve been going to them for 15 years and no one has ever blown my anonymity. I think everybody who is trying to get themselves off drugs is entitled to a bit of privacy.
“If their anonymity has been blown and they don’t feel safe at those meetings, they may well never go back and they might die.
“I had a really nice boy at my meetings who died last week. He had a relapse and died. Accidental overdose. It’s life and death. It’s not a game.”
Davina was addicted to cocaine and heroin for six years from the age of 18. She remembered when she first took Ecstasy. “I was talking about the ‘second summer of love’ the other day—round 1988 to 1990—and the madness that was the birth of Ecstasy.
“Everyone was gurning all night. I remember when I took my first-ever E and, for a moment, it filled that hole.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ And then it started waning and it never quite worked as well again.”
Davina is still getting over the death of her estranged ex-alcoholic mother Florence Kock, who died at 62 this year.
In 2000 Davina banished Florence from her life for claiming in an interview that they went to a recovery meeting together because Davina’s drink and drugs demons had returned.
Davina recalled: “That’s how it all went wrong. It’s a powerful thing going to a meeting with your mum. She’d sold a story saying I was on the verge of relapse before the wedding and she had to take me to a meeting, which was so far from the truth.
“I go to meetings every week, not because I’m on the verge of relapse but because it keeps me sane.”
Davina was raised by her paternal grandparents after French-born Florence walked out on her husband Andrew and her daughter.
As a result, Davina was bullied at school: “Things like emptying my pencil case on the floor or teasing me about my granny not having money.
“A lot of my drive came from proving that they’d regret not being nice to me because I was going to end up ‘somebody’.
“Also, my mum was an alcoholic and I think part of my wanting to be famous was trying to get acceptance from her.”
But she wants to tell the wannabes who go on Big Brother, which she has fronted since it started in 2000, their lives won’t be better once they’ve had their five minutes of fame.
She said: “They can’t fill their spiritual void with celebrity.
“But when you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, they simply say, ‘Famous’. It’s like a career option. Depressing.”
Read the full interview in Marie Claire, out on Thursday.
source:News of the World (http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2906_davina.shtml)
The TV host has admitted she and her husband, former Pet Rescue presenter Matthew Robertson, had counselling to save their relationship.
Davina, who has previously denied any problems in her eight-year marriage, said: “I like to talk things through and Matthew, like most men, doesn’t. He’ll generally say, ‘This is ridiculous,’ and walk out.
“I’m left huffing and thinking, ‘I need to talk about this!’ Under duress he’ll sit down and listen if he has to.”
In the interview, to be published this week, she admitted that five years ago they went to see a therapist, “not because we were splitting up, but because we were bickering a lot”.
BUST-UPS: With Matthew
Davina, 39, and Matthew, 40, who now have three children, had four therapy sessions.
“We had this stumbling block and every time we started talking about it, we’d have a row. So we needed a mediator to say, ‘Hang on a minute, let Matthew talk. Right Davina, how do you feel?’ Afterwards we were like, ‘Blimey. We’ve achieved in 90 minutes what we’ve been trying to talk about for six weeks,’ ” she said.
Davina stressed the therapy worked and now she couldn’t imagine life without Matthew.
She said: “It was the best thing we’ve done and I’ve recommended it to lots of friends. I can’t imagine ever being with anybody else now. I’m so ensconced with Matthew I don’t know what I’d do without him. I’d be lost.”
Davina also confessed she’s still haunted by her drink and drugs demons and religiously attends addiction recovery meetings, even though she’s been clean for 16 years. In the frank interview with Janet Street-Porter in Marie Claire magazine, she said: “I go twice a week. I’ve been going to them for 15 years and no one has ever blown my anonymity. I think everybody who is trying to get themselves off drugs is entitled to a bit of privacy.
“If their anonymity has been blown and they don’t feel safe at those meetings, they may well never go back and they might die.
“I had a really nice boy at my meetings who died last week. He had a relapse and died. Accidental overdose. It’s life and death. It’s not a game.”
Davina was addicted to cocaine and heroin for six years from the age of 18. She remembered when she first took Ecstasy. “I was talking about the ‘second summer of love’ the other day—round 1988 to 1990—and the madness that was the birth of Ecstasy.
“Everyone was gurning all night. I remember when I took my first-ever E and, for a moment, it filled that hole.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ And then it started waning and it never quite worked as well again.”
Davina is still getting over the death of her estranged ex-alcoholic mother Florence Kock, who died at 62 this year.
In 2000 Davina banished Florence from her life for claiming in an interview that they went to a recovery meeting together because Davina’s drink and drugs demons had returned.
Davina recalled: “That’s how it all went wrong. It’s a powerful thing going to a meeting with your mum. She’d sold a story saying I was on the verge of relapse before the wedding and she had to take me to a meeting, which was so far from the truth.
“I go to meetings every week, not because I’m on the verge of relapse but because it keeps me sane.”
Davina was raised by her paternal grandparents after French-born Florence walked out on her husband Andrew and her daughter.
As a result, Davina was bullied at school: “Things like emptying my pencil case on the floor or teasing me about my granny not having money.
“A lot of my drive came from proving that they’d regret not being nice to me because I was going to end up ‘somebody’.
“Also, my mum was an alcoholic and I think part of my wanting to be famous was trying to get acceptance from her.”
But she wants to tell the wannabes who go on Big Brother, which she has fronted since it started in 2000, their lives won’t be better once they’ve had their five minutes of fame.
She said: “They can’t fill their spiritual void with celebrity.
“But when you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, they simply say, ‘Famous’. It’s like a career option. Depressing.”
Read the full interview in Marie Claire, out on Thursday.
source:News of the World (http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2906_davina.shtml)