Davina McCall 'cried all night' over losing friend before getting clean from heroin
Davina McCall has opened up about the turning point in her addiction battle which spurred her on to quit drugs for good.
Davina McCall was at "rock bottom" at the height of her drug addiction battle. Aged 24, the presenter was in a "mess" having quit her job, left her boyfriend and lost all her friends. She moved back in with her parents and was staying in a tiny room.
One friend who was there for her was author Sarah Hiscox. One day, Sarah got Davina in a car and gave her some tough love.
She said: “I know you’ve been lying to me, I know you’ve been telling me that you’re clean, but I can see you’re not...
"You are the topic of conversation at every dinner I go to, every coffee I have with friends, everywhere I go, you are what we are talking about.”
While Sarah was doing this because she cared about Davina and didn’t want to lose her, Davina reacted badly.
Davina, 56, recalled on the Stirring It Up podcast with Andi and Miquita Oliver: "I was like, ‘well f**k you, f**k you, f**k you!’ Got out the car, slammed the door, already my heart is breaking in two. Turn away from the car, start crying, make it to the door.
“Sit down on the bed - that is like a camp bed because my parents didn't have a bedroom for me to sleep in - just sit there and go ‘What the actual f*ck, this is my life, what have I f**king done?’ I've lost my only friend, I've just told her to f**k off, I am broken.”
Davina says she “cried all night”. The next morning, she went straight to Sarah’s office with a bunch of flowers and told her: “I'm not expecting you to believe me, but I do, I want to get clean and I'm sorry about what I said.”
With the reality of losing Sarah too heartbreaking to face, Davina realised there was no option other than to follow through on her promise.
Aged 24, Davina began attending Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings and gave up all drugs.
She told Dragons’ Den’s Steven Bartlett on his Diary of a CEO podcast last year: “NA taught me how to live and how to change and how to heal myself, I owe NA my life, literally. But it also gave me my career.”
Having tried unsuccessfully to get a gig at MTV for three years, Davina finally landed her dream job when she was six months clean.
She added to Steven: “And I didn't mess it up. You know, I turned up on time…early, which was new for me. I turned up clean and smelling like flowers, with a smile on my face and colour in my cheeks.”
Stirring It Up is available to listen to on all podcast platforms.
