Davina McCall shared troubling ‘secret’ with Corrie star after brain tumour blow

Davina McCall shared a troubling ‘secret’ with Coronation Street star Antony Cotton just days before announcing her brain tumour diagnosis to the world.

The former Big Brother host has been diagnosed with a benign tumour called a colloid cyst, measuring 14mm and taking up space in her brain – requiring a craniotomy surgery to remove it. She explained that she discovered the “rare” tumour – which affects three in a million people – during a routine health scan.

Now her friend Antony Cotton, best known for playing Sean Tully on the Corrie cobbles, has admitted he knew about her health blow before the public did.

Sharing Davina’s announcement video on his Instagram Stories, Antony explained: “On Monday night, before I did GMB on Tuesday morning, I saw Davina who was out having dinner with Michael and their pals.

“Davina came over to my table, I was on my own, and we chatted for a bit, about stuff we’re working on etc. and then after a little while she said quietly, ‘Can I tell you a secret?’ Well, that was the secret. Not secret anymore.

“I was blindsided by how brilliant she is. She’s a wonder and I love her. Speak on the flip side, she said. Indeed we will.”

Explaining her news to fans, Davina said: “Hi, so I’m posting this it will be Friday morning. I’m posting it because a few months ago I did a menopause talk for a company and they offered me a health scan in return, which I thought I was going to ace, but it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst, which is very rare.

“Three in a million! So I slightly put my head in the sand for a while, and then I saw quite a few neurosurgeons, I got lots of opinions. I realised that I have to get it taken out.

"It’s big for the space – it fills the space. It’s 14mm wide. And it needs to come out because if it grows it would be bad.”

Her partner Michael Douglas was an expert at cheering Davina up as he joked: “Just letting people know that I will have my eye on her throughout this procedure! In fact I offered to do the operation, just to make sure it was done properly! They wouldn’t let me. She’s in very good hands.”