Davina McCall recalls heartbreaking moment she decided not to see her mother on her deathbed - 'I think she knew I always loved her'


September 23, 2016

Davina McCall spoke candidly about the difficulties of the strained relationship she had with her mother in a new interview.

During her appearance on Saturday night's episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, viewers will see the TV presenter talk frankly about Florence Kock, who passed away in South Africa in 2008.

The 48-year-old TV star - who has just released an autobiography, called Lessons I've Learned - revealed how she decided not to pay her dying mother a visit before her death.

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Davina McCall has once again highlighted the true extent of her strained relationship with her mother

"It was big - and it was one I really agonised over," she said. "So she was in South Africa so geographically it was a flight, it wasn’t get in the car and just go and say goodbye.

"Friends of mine were saying, 'Do you think you might want to go and make peace?' and I said, 'I tried to make peace my entire life.'

"We'd basically been estranged from when I was about 30 through to when she died, so about 12 years."

The Long Lost Family presenter, who has three children with husband Matthew Robertson, went on to admit how her mother also used to ask her for money.

The 48-year-old has just released an autobiography, called Lessons I've Learned

She said: "Either she's sold a story or she just asks for money and I just kept thinking to myself, 'Are you fooling yourself? Are you kidding yourself? And I thought, I don't want to go, I don't want to go all the way and go and say goodbye.'"

Of their rocky relationship, Davina confessed: 'It was really complicated… I had such an odd relationship with my mother and I really hope that this book goes a certain way to help people understand it because I loved her.

"She was the most exciting, beautiful, glamorous, amazing woman but she was also an alcoholic and an addict. She was really confusing and also very exciting but I never quite knew how to behave around her."

The TV star spoke frankly about her mother during her appearance on Saturday's episode of The Jonathan Ross Show

Following the breakdown of her parents' marriage when she was three years old, Davina went to live with her paternal grandparents but then turned to drugs when she was a teenager.

"She was incapable of mothering so I was always trying to get her to do motherly things," she explained. "But it never quite happened and it left me yearning for more all the time. I was so confused, I didn’t know how to be around her but I worshipped her and I know she loved me too but not in a conventional way.”

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