An appeal for Davinaland disaster zone

DAVINA McCALL took time out on Christmas Day to post an Instagram message to anyone feeling lonely, or missing a loved one, or down with the festive blues. O come all ye faithfully cynical ones, yes, I do know she has a new fitness DVD to promote.

However, I still found her odd little statement sincere and rather touching.

Davina (pictured) is 50 years old. She is not at a crossroads, she is standing at the Spaghetti Junction of her life — and every woman knows that is a lonely place to be.

Her 17-year marriage is over, the menopause is ongoing, she is emotionally all over the place. One minute Davina is celebrating the changes that age brings, the next she seems to be upset at the onset of cronedom.

A former drug addict, she has swapped her bad habit for a fitness habit, and has typically taken it to gaunt-cheeked extremes. But so what? Exercise is healthier than heroin any day of the week.

She may be an occasionally tiresome seeker of the spotlight, but there is much to admire about Davina. It takes courage to admit that your life has gone spectacularly awry and that you have made bad decisions. And her reborn wholesome image was always so intrinsically linked to Matthew Robertson, the handsome man she met out dog-walking and later married. She is bereft in a very public, as well as private, way — double agony.

Three children, beautiful homes, successful careers — it always seemed so perfect. Until the marriage renewal vows in 2015 signalled, as they so often do, that something was wrong in Davinaland.

I hope that whatever happens next, she finds peace and happiness in 2018 without running herself into the ground.

And may I wish all my readers a happy New Year, too.