Davina’s tears: The woman she’ll never forget
Davina McCall got emotional recently about the woman that was a mother to her…
Sometimes, people come into our lives and stay in our hearts forever. For fitness guru Davina McCall, one of those was her late granny, ‘Pippy’.
Pippy died more than two years ago but the emotion came flooding back recently, when Davina received a stunning portrait of her late grandma, which she shared on social media.
The fitness guru, 52, revealed she broke down when she first saw the artwork – created from an original photograph – as she shared it on her Instagram account.
The mum-of-three wrote: ‘I literally cannot get over this… this is a portrait of my granny Pippy. It’s so her. So real. It made me cry. In a good way.
‘I took this of her on her birthday four years ago. Thank you so much @petandpeopleportraits. This is breathtaking.’
With her mother, Florence, rarely around, Pippy was a constant in Davina’s life.
‘She (Florence) was incapable of mothering, so I was always trying to get her to do motherly things,’ Davina once admitted. ‘But it never quite happened, and it left me yearning for more… I worshipped her, and I know she loved me, too, but not in a conventional way.’
Her father, Andrew, and his mum practically raised Davina at their Surrey home, after Florence moved to Paris when Davina was just three.
When Pippy died in 2018 aged 98, following a tragic battle with dementia– which Davina’s father is now living with, too – she was devastated.
Sharing the heartbreaking news on social media, the Long Lost Family presenter paid a touching tribute.
‘Our lovely Pippy died peacefully in her sleep… She was the matriarch of our family. The glue that kept us all together. She was like a mother to me... and a rock for so many people in their times of need.’
Davina has spoken previously about the pair’s special bond, calling Pippy a ‘fantastic role model’, who was ‘strong, kind, funny, cuddly, clever and she loved music and singing. She was a great mum, sister, auntie, grandma, and a loving and loyal friend.’
She concluded the loving post with: ‘She was phenomenally intuitive...she could really read people... and used to say “Pippy knows” – and she did!... love you Pippy.’
She sounded like one in a million, Davina…
‘She was a great mum, sister, auntie, grandma and a loyal, loving friend’