Davina McCall talks about the loss of her sister to cancer, the end of her 17 year marriage and dealing with her father’s Alzheimer’s

Enviably fit, glamorous and successful, Davina McCall doesn’t look like a woman who needs anything to boost her confidence – but the 52-year-old has a secret weapon.

“I’ve always worn smoking hot underwear, even when I was single. It’s nothing to do with anyone else, it’s just for me. It’s like a little shield, only you know you’re wearing it and it’s the best thing ever,” declares the presenter and fitness guru, who was due to host the first WellFest UK in June before it got postponed due to the pandemic.

She’s appalled that from 50 onwards, many women can “feel invisible when it comes to underwear and are often only offered something really boring, plain – big pants, ugh!

“We’re perfectly able to feel sexy and vixen-like, with or without a man.

“You can be in your 50s, 60s and 70s and need a bit of va-va-voom. I regard it as an act of self-love to treat my body to lovely lingerie every morning.”

Launching her own lingerie range is just one of her current projects – she’s still presenting ITV’s Long Lost Family and recently appeared as a judge on The Masked Singer.

Away from the screen, life seems settled. McCall – who has three children with ex-husband, Pet Rescue presenter Matthew Robertson– is dating hairdresser Michael Douglas, her best friend of 20 years, and says she’s in her “best place ever”.

“I’d like to be a spokesperson for women in their 50s or approaching that milestone and tell them, ‘It’s going to be OK – I’m having a blast and you can too!’ I’m proud of being 52. This is going to be my decade where I grab life by the horns and ride with it.

“When I was a kid, women in their 50s looked like they were in their 70s and like it was all over. It’s so different now. Getting older has made me looser, calmer and happier in my own skin.

“Embracing fitness has boosted my body confidence way higher than it was when I was 18, when my body was at its peak – because it has nothing to do with what your body actually looks like, and everything to do with how you feel.”

But life hasn’t always been easy for McCall.

“Going through a divorce is an emotional turmoil and very hard, but after two years we’ve come through it and are co-parenting happily.

“Nothing can ever be as bad as losing Caroline (McCall’s sister died from cancer in 2012).

“Remarkably, she supported me throughout, even though she was the one dying, just like she supported me through life really.

“She also taught me to not fear death. I admired her bravery so much.”

She also has another family health trauma to deal with. “It’s very hard to see my dad, Andrew, suffering from Alzheimer’s. It’s heartbreaking watching someone who was so active and intelligent and argumentative having to be helped with the most basic tasks.

“All these experiences have made me try harder to just live in the day, so each day brings its own set of joy, or trials or tribulations, but the next day is like a clean slate and you start again.”