Davina McCall breaks silence on ‘horrible’ memory loss after brain surgery
24 May 2025, 19:00
The 57-year-old TV personality has opened up about her frightening post-surgery experience, which she described as like Alzheimer’s.
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Ms McCall described her experience to Heart’s Jamie Theakston, on her podcast Begin Again.
The Big Brother legend was diagnosed with a rare 14mm colloid cyst on her brain in 2023, during a chance health check.
The benign cyst, which affects one in three million, was successfully removed in 2024 by neurosurgeon Kevin O’Neill - but Ms McCall revealed the unsettling side-effects she experienced during her recovery.
As well as severe side-effects on her memory and perception, Ms McCall also lost 4 kilograms of muscle during her recovery.
Read More: Davina McCall reveals she's been given the 'all clear' following brain tumour diagnosis
“Can I tell you a weird thing?” she began. “I understand a bit about [dementia symptoms] because I woke up with no short-term memory. It’s come back very, very slowly over three months.
“I struggled with all of those feelings when I was just out of hospital.”
“Like an Alzheimer's?” Mr Theakston commented.
“Yeah, it was,” Ms McCall responded. “I got paranoid. I got like, insecure. I didn’t trust people that I love and trust. It was horrible, but I could feel it coming back. Rather than losing it.
“It gave me a new, well… obviously, you know, my dad died of Alzheimer’s. It gave me a new appreciation for what he’d been through - and for what your [Theakston’s] dad is going through now, and what it really feels like. It’s extraordinary.”
Ms McCall has publicly opened up about her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s before, after her father passed away in 2022 - six years after receiving a diagnosis for Alzheimer’s.
Speaking to Alzheimer’s Society in 2017, she spoke about how she “hero-worshipped” her dad, and how she had to contend with “grieving the loss of her old dad”.
Alzheimer’s is a neurological disease which exponentially affects a person’s memory. It is the most common form of dementia, currently affecting more than 940,000 people in the UK.
While colloid cysts are rare, the NHS says that generalised, non-cancerous brain tumours are more likely to affect people over 50.
They say symptoms can include headaches, vision problems and drowsiness, and some can be "difficult to remove without damaging surrounding tissue".
Thankfully, Ms McCall was able to share her “all-clear” diagnosis earlier this year.
"I am so so grateful particularly because I know a lot of people have inoperable tumours and and I know I’m lucky to be able to draw a line under this and move on with my life when so many people can’t," she said on Instagram.
"I’m just gonna say this one more time. Benign does not mean fine."
