[Red Moon]

Davina McCall exclusive
Why my six-year-old daughter helped me give birth

The theme for her recent 40th bash was "mutton dressed as lamb", while the celebrations included naked breakdancing.

And the birthday girl herself turned up in a bottom-skimming dress she first wore when she was 26. Clearly, Davina McCall plans to grow old disgracefully...

"It was very funny," she grins. "We had some people well into their 40s arriving very Russell Brand-esque - men in tight trousers with pointy shoes and eye make-up. My dad wore Converse trainers and I had on a sort of ice-skating outfit. My arse was slightly hanging out, but it was good.

"I feel like it's a milestone, but I don't feel bad about it because I've been telling people

I'm 40 for six months. So I'm used to it and I quite like it. If you feel physically fit at 40, you feel so proud of yourself.

"When I was younger 40 seemed past it, but today there are no boundaries. You don't have to dress a certain way - and look at Kylie and Sadie Frost. They're hot chicks."

Davina's even planning another tattoo to mark her fourth decade. The design will incorporate her 37-year-old husband - former TV presenter Matthew Robertson, who now runs an adventure travel firm - and their children, Holly, six, Tilly, four, and 14-month-old Chester.

"It'll cover up the chilli peppers on my shoulder - a few people have asked why I have carrots on my back!" she explains.

One thing she won't be doing in her 40s is adding to her brood. "If I get pregnant it'll be a glorious mistake, but I'm not planning on having any more," she says firmly.

That decision is nothing to do with the trials of birth. In fact, while most mums-tobe feel like knackered beached whales, Davina felt sexier than ever while expecting.

"For the first three months I was shattered but after that I felt amazing," she says. "I was doing Big Brother and I felt I looked better than I ever had done. I did feel sexier -

I felt like a goddess with Chester. I don't know if it's boy hormones, if boys make women feel sexier?"

As with her other two, Davina opted for a natural birth at her Surrey home.

"If I'd have known he was going to be 10lb 2oz I'd have been petrified," she confesses.
She found an unlikely helper close at hand when her contractions started - her daughter Holly. Davina says: "She helped me out with my breathing when I was in the birthing pool.

"We told her she could either go to school and tell everybody the baby was coming, or be there when the baby came out.

"She said she'd stay. She was so cute, stroking my hair and helping me through contractions.

She even asked if she could get in. But I said, 'No, it might get a bit messy.

Mummy's going to start pushing, do you want to come back when the baby's born, I'm going to make a bit of noise and you might not like it?'

"She said, 'I'll watch Lazytown and come back - tell me when the baby's here.' She gave me a reason to be brave. It's good to have someone there to keep it together for.

He was a big baby - but I kept thinking of Holly and she gave me a lot of courage."

Davina, who is 5ft 7in, has regained her enviable figure again. There isn't any spare fat on her body and she looks healthy toned. But don't think it was easy.

"It was much harder this time around I spent the first six months saying, 'My never going to go!'" she says. "I'm just shy of 10st now, so it's been a year of slow, gradual weight loss and exercise.

"I'm not criticising women who lose weight immediately - some genetically snap back into shape. I know a lot of women think I snap back, but I don't. I do some clever dressing and sucking in."

Davina is upbeat today, chatting about her latest fitness DVD and plans for a new TV project. Yet she has faced some tough challenges when comes to work.

"I'm trying to write a show good for me with some friends," she says. "I'd like to try something different - obviously opening myself to enormous criticism - again."

Criticism is something she has had to get used to. First her BBC chat show, Davina, was panned and axed after just one series.

Then there was the fallout from the Celebrity Big Brother racism row. She came under fire for her "soft" interviews with shamed housemates, Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara, after their treatment of Shilpa Shetty.

But Davina remains philosophical. "Generally in life my cup is half full - pick yourself up, dust yourself down and it'll be OK," she shrugs. "As far as Celebrity Big Brother goes, I think that was an issue of bullying that smacked of racism. For me, it was much more an issue of bullying that got completely out of control.

"I know people criticised my interviewing, but I think I did a sterling job. Channel 4 was happy with it and I haven't met anyone who wishes I'd been harder."

She has managed to put that experience behind her but you sense that the negative reaction to her chat show was much harder to brush off.

"I was pregnant and it was a really difficult three months," she says.

"I thought if I'm going to get flak, I'm going to get it for this. It was a hard time slot - 8pm opposite The Bill. But it turned into this huge deal. It was weird, you know, why are they discussing this on Talk Radio?

"It was a year ago - I'm in a completely different place. Your ups aren't as up if you don't have downs. If things were always the same, it'd be pretty bloody boring. It was difficult but I've moved on.

You have to try things." She's cer tainly done that. Earlier this year she campaigned for the compulsory sex education in secondary schools. "I went to the House of Lords last week to see if it was still on the agenda," she says. "I'm slowly chipping away, but it's a contentious issue."

Drugs are another issue with her. She beat her addiction in her 20s and still attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and says she won't shy away from telling her kids about the dangers.

She says: "I won't sit them down at seven and say, 'This is the drug chat' - it's not necessary. I'll wait till they ask. I still go to a weekly NA meeting and my kids know Mummy goes to meetings.

"At some point Holly will ask about it and I'll explain honestly. One day I'm sure she'll want to come with me."

Apart from her family, Davina's other big passion is still Big Brother. She is already looking forward to the ninth series which starts next May, but you won't see her as a contestant on a reality show any time soon.

"I've fancied doing Celebrity Fame Academy, but I couldn't be away from my kids for that long," she says.

"But on Red Nose Day I sang Are You Gonna Go My Way? by Lenny Kravitz with a real band and I was orgasming. It was the best night of my life.

"When you don't touch drugs or alcohol, something like that is the biggest buzz you can get."

5 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT DAVINA..

1 SON Chester is named after the brother of 80s models Nick and Barry Kayma. "I knew them when I was a model agent and their brother Chester was uber cool. I always thought it was a cool name. I loved the name Baxter, too, but everyone said 'soup'!"

2 HER three children were all born in September: "We always start trying at Christmas, then I definitely won't give birth during Big Brother. We've got a five-month window to get pregnant, then we have to stop for another year.

3 THE pilot for her chat show, Davina, was called Mid-week McCall.

4 SHE has an underactive thyroid. "I found out before I got pregnant with Holly. I was lucky it got picked up because it can have a negative effect on a pregnancy."

5 SHE loves karaoke: "I'm a karaoke queen! Cuddly Toy by Roachford is my favourite."

Source: Daily Mirror