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DAVINA TELLS HOW TARGETS HELP HER ACHIEVE

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life around after going through tough times.

At three, she went to live with her grandparen­ts when her parents split. Her mum once left her at the age of 12 in a nightclub. Davina developed anorexia in her early teens.

No wonder then that as a teen, she was the classic wild child – trying to be a singer and going out with rock star Eric Clapton, who is 22 years her senior. She became a face on the London nightclub circuit and took drugs including cocaine and heroin.

But again, she stopped before the abyss. She was clean by the age of 25 and worked hard to become a TV presenter, going on to be the original host of Big Brother.

After the birth of Chester (now 11. Tilly is 14 and Holly is 16), she hit the gym and again has never looked back, pushing herself to have a body that’s the envy of women 30 years younger and raising £2.2million for Sport Relief with a 500-mile triathlon from Edinburgh to London.

But she still had to deal with heartache. Her mum Florence died in 2008, her half-sister Caroline died from cancer in 2012. Her dad Andrew has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Davina calls herself a “work in progress” and has turned to TV shows that give something back.

She was there at the weekend to help her friend Declan Donnelly as he hosted Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway solo.

And she offers viewers the chance to win life-changing amounts of money in The £100k Drop, a daily afternoon version of The Million Pound Drop which she hosted for five years until 2015.

Since 2011, she has hosted Long Lost Family with Nicky Campbell, an inspiring series reconnecti­ng parents and children after years of separation.

And next week she’s back for a second series of This Time Next Year which features people pledging to change their lives in 12 months, whether it’s losing weight, having children or realising a lifelong personal ambition.

Davina said: “Generally speaking, if it makes your life better, I’d like to host it. I see it as an amazing makeover show, people making their own lives over, so I love that.

“I also think people can watch and learn from it. If someone who is having a baby by surrogate, how did you find a surrogate? How does that work? All this kind of stuff. It’s really informativ­e as well.”

In next Tuesday’s opening episode, one of the stories is of the parents of deaf four-month-old Olivia Tapp trying to get cochlear implants so she can hear them say her name for the first time.

It also follows Jayne Hardman, whose dog bumped into her nose and after the swelling didn’t go down found out she had a rare autoimmune disease that eats away at body tissue.

She’s hoping her condition goes into remission and she can get a prosthetic nose after her real one collapsed.

While viewers don’t have to wait a year to see what happens, Davina does and she admits that it is sometimes “torture”.

She said: “I am the most impatient person in the universe. I worry about these people for an entire year. I think, ‘I wonder how she is doing or I wonder what she is doing’

“I spent the last year stressing about whether these people are going to achieve their goals but that’s where the magic happens.

“My children fell off their chairs when they saw the first show. They were like, ‘How did you do that? I don’t understand.’”

While some achieve their goals, others don’t. Davina, who has looked after the battered and bruised on shows such as Big Brother and The Jump, is there to help.

She said: “I try to make the show a positive experience.

“I want them to know that I appreciate it’s brave to come back and say you haven’t been able to do it, so I want them to know that when they do tell us that, I will be sensitive about it and I’ll try to find something positive to say about their experience because often it is through no fault of their own.” ● This Time Next Year returns to STV at 8pm next Tuesday.

 ??  ?? ON YOUR SIDE Davina is ready with sympathy if things don’t go to plan on her show. Picture: ITV A LIFE LIVED With Eric Clapton, below with estranged husband Matthew and left, lookingspo­rty
ON YOUR SIDE Davina is ready with sympathy if things don’t go to plan on her show. Picture: ITV A LIFE LIVED With Eric Clapton, below with estranged husband Matthew and left, lookingspo­rty

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