Davina McCall is reportedly engaged to her long-term partner, celebrity hairstylist Michael Douglas, the Daily Mail reported, a development the presenter is said to have kept private even from colleagues at ITV.
Friends told the paper McCall has a ring but has been wearing it only in private and that she told close family and friends before making the news public. An ITV source said McCall did not inform bosses at the broadcaster about the engagement.
McCall and Douglas, a hairdresser who has worked with celebrities, were friends for years before becoming romantic partners after McCall’s divorce from Matthew Robertson was finalised in April 2018. The couple went public with their relationship later in 2018, and by January 2023 Douglas had moved into McCall’s home, the reports said. Douglas is reported to be 47.
The reported engagement comes weeks after McCall said in an interview that she had no plans to marry again. In that interview she described her relationship as being in a prolonged "honeymoon period" and said she and her partner frequently travel without formalizing their relationship with marriage. She has previously cited lessons from her late father about the importance of "friendship, attraction, trust and respect" in successful relationships.
Friends quoted in coverage of the engagement said McCall’s experience last year with a brain tumour and subsequent surgery helped shape her view of life and relationships. McCall herself has spoken about how receiving a Special Recognition award at London’s O2 Arena was particularly meaningful because she had been due to undergo an operation weeks later and was uncertain of her future.
McCall has been married twice before. She was married to Andrew Leggett from 1997 to 1999 and to Matthew Robertson for 17 years; she and Robertson share three children, Holly, Chester and Tilly.
The presenter has long kept her personal life relatively private while maintaining a high-profile television career that has included hosting roles on reality and entertainment programmes. Coverage of the reported engagement has focused on the contrast between McCall’s earlier public reluctance to remarry and the decision, reported by friends, to mark the relationship with an engagement after a period of illness and recovery.
McCall has not publicly confirmed the engagement at the time of publication. The Daily Mail reported the details and quoted friends and sources close to the presenter; ITV declined immediate comment through the channel’s customary statement routes.