Women who get divorced don’t get invited to dinners – they’re overlooked, says Davina McCall, 56, as she reveals what she feared most about mid-life

When Davina McCall paid an emotional tribute to her boyfriend on stage at the National Television Awards last week, she did so knowing how lonely life would be without him.

After accepting the prestigious Special Recognition award, she looked at her partner of four years, Michael Douglas, and said to him, “I love being on this journey with you. You make me a better person and you make me so happy. Thank you.”

It was a very public statement for Mrs McCall, 56, who prefers to keep her romance behind closed doors at her Kent home.

In an exclusive interview with the Mail, she opens up for the first time about how grateful she is to be in a relationship and how scared she was of being alone in middle age.

It feels particularly fitting, given that her name is now indelibly linked to a show that aims to quell that very fear. She’s back tonight to present a second series of ITV’s My Mum, Your Dad, a grown-up Love Island in which middle-aged single women, nominated by their children, search for romance as they move into a Surrey mansion.

Ms McCall and celebrity hairdresser Douglas, 50, began dating two years after she split from her husband of 17 years, Matthew Robertson. She told me: ‘Loneliness is a subject that comes up a lot in My Mum, Your Dad and I spoke to Michael about it a lot. I said, “You know, it’s great that we’ve come together at this stage in our lives because I don’t know if I would be with anyone if we hadn’t come together”.’

“I think women are much happier to be single later in life, but it’s very sad. Sometimes women who divorce are not invited to dinner parties, or they are overlooked because they are not in a relationship anymore. They are a single woman and that just adds to your loneliness.”

She added: ‘I think it’s quite difficult for famous women. You can’t use the apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to because I knew Michael – I’d known him for 20 years. I’d probably go to a dance class – God knows what I’d do.’

“For famous women it’s quite difficult. You can’t do the apps, so how do you meet people? I didn’t have to because I knew Michael – I’d known him for 20 years,” says Ms McCall

For Mrs McCall, it’s simply unfathomable, especially at a time when her nest is empty. Her eldest daughter Holly, 23, recently moved to Manchester with her boyfriend. Second daughter Tilly, 21, is in Australia. That leaves only son Chester, 18, at home for a year before he goes to university.

“I’m in the middle of the empty nest problem,” she says. “As a parent, the goal is to give your kids the confidence to leave the house and never look back, to not be afraid to take that leap.”

She helped Holly move up north, where she has a new job. “I drove her up there, we went to Ikea to get all the storage stuff and fixed it up. And then I thought, ‘What is this feeling in my heart?’ It was such an unfamiliar feeling. I thought, ‘I’m leaving you here… wow, this is really hard.’

“It’s not like you take someone to college and they come back for the big vacation. She’s starting her real life. I cried when I left. I didn’t think I would feel this way. It’s so exciting, but it’s emotional. It was an unexpected emotion.”

She’s excited to give midlifers like herself a second chance through My Mum, Your Dad, and says the show reflects her own experiences. “I would say we’re the first of a generation of people who were ravers in the 80s. They’re my people,” she says.

‘Back in the day, when they never asked you for ID, we all went to clubs at 14, 15, 16. Girls liked being ladettes – I was the first sober ladette. We’re that generation that was crazy, then had our kids, raised them and then said, ‘Okay, I’m still young enough.’

Davina is the presenter of the dating reality show My Mum, Your Dad, which starts tonight

When I meet the presenter at ITV’s west London headquarters, she certainly looks much younger than she is. She is glowing and looks very, very fit. Last month, she posted a picture of herself on Instagram in a red bikini and matching cowboy boots, showing off her washboard stomach.

Her exercise regime is surprisingly modest, but she has recently given up sugar, eats eggs for breakfast and eats lots of oily fish. ‘I work out three to four times a week, that’s all I have time for,’ she explains.

‘I’m active on my other days. I always run up the escalator, or get off the train one stop early and walk or run. I’ve had a summer where I’ve swum in the sea, danced in the nightclub and kayaked.

‘I’m doing strength training now: bicep curls, planks, squats with weights.’

“I’m doing Couch to 5k. I haven’t run yet and I’m not fit, so I’m back at the beginning. I’m very humble,” she adds, laughing.

My Mum, Your Dad started last night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.