Davina McCall: How To Overcome ANY Trauma & Live The Life You Deserve | E210
Davina McCall (guest), Steven Bartlett (host), Steven Bartlett (host)
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Davina McCall and Steven Bartlett, Davina McCall: How To Overcome ANY Trauma & Live The Life You Deserve | E210 explores davina McCall: From Addiction To Healing, Purpose And Menopause Activism Davina McCall shares her journey from childhood abandonment, drug addiction and deep insecurity to long‑term recovery, emotional healing and a joyful, purposeful life at 55.
Davina McCall: From Addiction To Healing, Purpose And Menopause Activism
Davina McCall shares her journey from childhood abandonment, drug addiction and deep insecurity to long‑term recovery, emotional healing and a joyful, purposeful life at 55.
She describes how early trauma and a chaotic relationship with her mother fuelled people‑pleasing, a desperate need for fame and serious addiction, and how NA and later hypnotherapy helped her resolve a lifelong fear of abandonment.
Davina reflects on career turning points, the power of relentless asking and self‑manifestation, and the profound impact of losing her sister Caroline, which reshaped how she thinks about death, boundaries and living fully now.
She also explains why she has made menopause education and advocacy a core mission, outlining symptoms, treatment, how partners can genuinely help, and why she now uses her platform primarily to help others rather than seek validation.
Key Takeaways
Early trauma often manifests later as addiction, people‑pleasing and a hunger for validation.
Davina’s mother leaving her with her grandmother without explanation created a deep fear of abandonment. ...
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Recovery requires total surrender, radical honesty and immersion in a supportive community.
Her turning point came after a 24‑hour cocaine binge when a friend confronted her, triggering overwhelming shame but also clarity: ‘I’m fucked. ...
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Targeted therapeutic work can release long‑standing patterns like fear of abandonment.
Years into sobriety, hypnotherapy unexpectedly unlocked her core abandonment wound. ...
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Ambition and manifestation must be paired with shameless action: ask, follow‑up, persist.
Davina’s MTV break came not from chance but from years of relentless outreach. ...
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Grief can radically reorder priorities and teach you how to live before it’s too late.
Caring for her sister Caroline through terminal lung and brain cancer was, in her words, ‘the worst thing that ever happened to me’ and also the best seven weeks of their relationship. ...
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Menopause is universal, poorly understood, and can devastate women’s lives if unsupported.
Davina describes perimenopause symptoms—night sweats, brain fog, mood shifts, body changes—that nearly derailed her career, and the dismissals she received (‘you’re too young’). ...
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Real purpose emerges when you stop chasing external validation and focus on service.
Earlier, fame was a subconscious message to her mother: ‘You made a mistake—look how great I am. ...
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Notable Quotes
“I am absolutely not a victim. Yes, life throws me curveballs, but I choose to learn from those and still be happy, rather than cling onto the curveball and let it pull me down.”
— Davina McCall
“I will literally do anything to stop feeling like this.”
— Davina McCall (on entering NA)
“It hasn’t fixed the hole. Getting my own show on MTV did not make my mum want me back.”
— Davina McCall
“Don’t wait for somebody to say that you’ve got six weeks to live, because the best seven weeks of my life with my sister were those last seven weeks of hers.”
— Davina McCall
“If you don’t think you have the power as one person, then you’ve never been to bed with a mosquito. Be as annoying as a mosquito.”
— Davina McCall, quoting Anita Roddick
Questions Answered in This Episode
You describe that hypnotherapy session as the moment the ‘cogs clicked’ and your fear of abandonment finally shifted. If you hadn’t done that session, in what specific ways do you think your relationships and career decisions would look different today?
Davina McCall shares her journey from childhood abandonment, drug addiction and deep insecurity to long‑term recovery, emotional healing and a joyful, purposeful life at 55.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
When you read that first front‑page tabloid story your mother sold about your recovery, were there any parts of you that still wanted to protect her, or did that moment permanently sever any desire to reconcile while she was alive?
She describes how early trauma and a chaotic relationship with her mother fuelled people‑pleasing, a desperate need for fame and serious addiction, and how NA and later hypnotherapy helped her resolve a lifelong fear of abandonment.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You’ve said Long Lost Family has made you feel deeply useful for 13 years. How do you emotionally protect yourself when you’re repeatedly immersed in other people’s trauma and reunions, given your own history of abandonment and loss?
Davina reflects on career turning points, the power of relentless asking and self‑manifestation, and the profound impact of losing her sister Caroline, which reshaped how she thinks about death, boundaries and living fully now.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
On menopause, what’s one practical, concrete change you believe every workplace should implement within the next 12 months that would make the biggest difference to women going through perimenopause or menopause?
She also explains why she has made menopause education and advocacy a core mission, outlining symptoms, treatment, how partners can genuinely help, and why she now uses her platform primarily to help others rather than seek validation.
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You’ve become more outspoken about cancel culture, yet you also acknowledge the genuine pain behind some online outrage. How should we draw the line between necessary accountability for public figures and destructive pile‑ons that shut down learning and honest conversation?
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Transcript Preview
I think out for everything ... she was worried about me. Do you know what I mean? Like, that was her last thought, like ... (sniffs)
(instrumental music plays) Davina McCall! She's a TV presenter, a fitness fanatic. Multiple time best-selling author. Rarely off our televisions, and what you see is what you get.
It's good to be back. After Big Brother, I thought, "What else can I do to get famous?" So I was always a bit of a show-off. "Mum, you made a mistake. Look how great I am." That's at the back of everything.
Why?
Oh... I did coke with my mum at 15. I did it with my sister at 14.
You were doing drugs when you were 15?
Yeah, like all drugs were my problem. I'd left my job, no money. I had nothing. I will literally do anything to stop feeling like this. "I'm gonna phone someone for help. I'm fucked."
10 years ago, you lost Caroline, your half-sister.
It was definitely the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was just trying to be really strong for her, (sniffs) and I kept saying to her, "I'm gonna be fine." She'd put a fence around her, and I thought, "I'm fucking climbing over the fence, and I'm gonna get in." Don't wait for somebody to say that you've got six weeks to live, because the best seven weeks of my life with my sister were those last seven weeks of hers. (exhales)
Quick one. At the start of these episodes, I told you that 74% of people who watch this channel frequently haven't yet hit the subscribe button. And I told you that the bigger the channel gets, the better the guests get, and hopefully I've delivered upon that for you. So there's two things I wanted to tell you. The first is, if you've ever enjoyed this channel, could you do me a favor, and my team here a favor? Which is, hit that subscribe button, because it helps this channel more than you know. And as I say, the bigger the channel, the better the guests. But also, we're approaching one million subscribers, and when we hit one million subscribers, we've been working for many months to do something very big in which you're all invited to. I'll reveal that when we hit a million subscribers. Enjoy this episode. (instrumental music plays) Davina, what was your first defining moment?
Oh. Um, definitely, uh, realizing, the moment I realized my mum wasn't coming back to pick me up. So, I got taken to my granny's, my paternal grandmother, most amazing woman called Pippy. Got taken to her house in the country, which I knew really well. I used to spend quite a lot of time down there with her. And my mum wasn't with my dad. She was with another man, but I didn't kind of question that. I, they'd split up, but I didn't, I didn't know that or kind of understand. I don't think in my head I realized what was going on. And, um, she said, "I'm going on, on holiday, and, you know, I'll be, I'll be back." And I was like, "Okay, great." And I stayed with my granny. And then, after a couple of months, I thought, "Is she coming back?" But then I thought, I didn't want to... uh, this was such a different time. You know, I'm 55, so this would've been over 50 years ago. It was such a different time that you didn't ask people. Children didn't go, "Where's Mummy gone?" Or, "When's Mummy coming back?" I knew that I was a guest at my granny's house, but I wasn't. It had all been planned. My granny had been given my custody. My dad was coming down every weekend to, to be with me. Um, they were sort of sharing custody, but my dad was trying to make money in London, and my granny was taking care of me day-to-day. And it had all been sorted, but I didn't know that, because they just thought, "Well, she's young. She won't really remember or realize. Let's all just brush it under the carpets." And it's so interesting, 'cause nowadays with my children, everything that happens, we're like, "How'd you feel about that? Are you okay? Let's talk it through. Blah, blah, blah." Just didn't happen back in those days. So I grew up thinking that my mum had left me, um, and had never come back. So at about probably four, maybe six months after, after she'd gone, I realized that I wasn't gonna live with her again. But I was left feeling guilty, 'cause I felt like my granny was looking after me, and she didn't want me in some way. Like, not that she didn't... She was so loving to me, but somehow I was overstaying my welcome. So I think that was a defining moment, because it set up a chain of events, a fear of abandonment that kind of made me make some really stupid decisions-
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