Davina McCall has admitted that she thought she’d lose work because of memory blackouts during menopause.
The Masked Dancer UK judge, 54, revealed she experienced such bad brain fog that she was filming with interior designer, “Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and I couldn’t remember his name”.
She added: “I thought I was going to have to give up my job – and I love my job. I was just at a stage where I thought I really knew how to do this job and then thought, ‘you are going to take it off me.’”
"It can be freeing" @ThisisDavina and Lorraine talk honestly about the menopause and why it's important people are talking about it. 🙏#Lorraine pic.twitter.com/WbGEVClTGL
— Lorraine (@lorraine) October 13, 2022
The TV presenter, who also said she thought she was “going mad”, spoke out on ITV’s Lorraine on Thursday. She told host Lorraine Kelly that she was too ashamed to speak to her production team about her menopause symptoms.
The mother of three, who eventually found relief through hormone replacement therapy or HRT, added that she felt quite lonely going through the entire process.
However, McCall, who is now a campaigner for HRT, wanted to reassure women going through the change that they are not alone.
“It’s so lonely [going through menopause], I thought I was disappearing and my world was getting smaller and smaller,” she said.
“I felt very lonely and isolated,” she said.
“‘It’s only when you come out of the grey, you think, I haven’t belly laughed for months …
“It can be a fantastic time in your life, of freedom. It’s just the next stage.”
McCall recently did documentary Sex, Mind and the Menopause – the follow-up to her 2021 programme Sex, Myths and the Menopause, which explored menopause myths and the taboo around HRT.