Secrets of new dating show My Mum, Your Dad revealed by Davina McCall & it’s completely different from Love Island
TELLY presenter Davina McCall was her late forties when she split from the father of her three children, and suddenly didn’t know what path the rest of her life would take.
That makes her the perfect host for new ITV1 dating show, My Mum, Your Dad, which sees middle-aged parents helped to meet new partners . . . with a little help from their sons and daughters.
Davina, now 55, is a particularly inspiring choice because she did manage to meet a new man in the form of 49-year-old hair stylist Michael Douglas, who she’s been dating for five years.
Davina said: “It was like a dream come true to walk into an entertainment TV show, on prime time ITV, and see my people, a bunch of mid-lifers.
“They all look really cool, they’re really good fun, culturally sort of set at the same place in life, like we all understand each other.
“We’ve all been through that second-time-round love.
“I just wanted to see midlife as represented in terms of dating because, this second time around thing that often that happens in your forties or fifties, where you’ve got children . . . life is complicated.
“But more than ever, you feel you are at a point in your life where you deserve to find love, they deserve to spend the rest of their lives with somebody.”
‘Should I, shouldn’t I?’
Choking up, she adds: “You know, it’s about opening the door and coming home to someone. Everybody deserves it but it’s hard to find.”
The premise is simple, nine mums or dads aged 43 to 58 are placed inside a plush pad while their youngsters are secretly in another room watching what’s going on via cameras.
Yet unlike Love Island or similar dating programmes, not every corner of the house is under surveillance.
Davina said: “There are no cameras in the bedrooms and I think it’s important to point out that it’s different in that way.
“I’d rather watch the hint of love, a hint of something coming, you know, ‘Should I, shouldn’t I?’ A moment of tenderness, something amazing. That’s so exciting.
“But like jumping into bed and shagging . . . it’s sort of like, once you’ve seen it once, it doesn’t mean anything.
“Yeah, this really f***ing means something. When you see people falling and you know, that this is serious, that’s what’s so lovely.
“This is what sets it apart, it’s that it’s not cynical, it is just about the love. It’s literally trying to foster an environment where love will flourish and they did the best job ever.
“You don’t get the big wad of cash at the end. The prize is love.”
The show doesn’t flinch from showing how difficult the process of finding love again can really be.
That often involved Davina getting submerged in the rollercoaster ride of emotions the contestants went on — and sometimes getting involved.
She said: “I don’t know if it’s made it to the show but once I did actually say to the production team, ‘Please, let me just go and talk to this person because they were having a proper crisis’.
“I had to go in and say, ‘We chose you because you are brilliant. Please know that’. So I did that once.
“But really I shouldn’t, you know, you want to go in there and get involved but actually, you’ve got to let it play out. The more you get involved, it’s a mistake.
“And what do I know? I don’t know these people, you’ve just got to let it play out.
“I tell you what was lovely though, people come and go, there’s no evictions.
“It’s not like we’re going to chuck you out but it’s more a decision of they don’t think they’re gonna find love.
“It’s time to leave. When you’ve exhausted everybody in the house you think ‘I don’t fancy anyone, it’s actually a hard place to be’.”
Despite not trying to get too involved she did find herself being endeared to many of the contestants, including 58-year-old silver fox widower Roger.
Davina said: “What I love about Roger, and you’ll get to know this as the series goes on, is he always slightly says the wrong thing.
“It’s always a slight overshare, like saying on a date he uses his toothbrush to brush the dog’s teeth. I mean, he’s phenomenal.”
Davina married and divorce Andrew Leggett in 1997 then married TV presenter and vet Matthew Robertson in 2000 and separated in 2017.
They have three children together — Holly, 21, Tilly, 19 and 16-year-old Chester — and like the potential unions in Your Mum, My Dad, she knows it is tricky when people with children meet.
But Davina also knows how it can work too, because her partner, Michael, has two sons of his own.
They all now live together in what they’re happy to call “a blended family”.
As a frequent face on programmes such as The One Show, he understands some of what it is like to live the glare of the media spotlight.
But Davina is thrilled to still be in demand, hosting shows including Your Mum, My Dad as well as The Masked Singer and Long Lost Family as well as her trailblazing documentaries on women’s health for Channel 4.
Not bad for a Nineties “ladette” who could easily have for ever been saddled with the memory of hosting Big Brother, a show she fronted from 2000 to 2010.
She said in Radio Times: “We got called ladettes, which made me laugh because I think of ladettes as beer-swilling, and I haven’t had a drink for 30 years.
“We were like, ‘Sod you, we can do anything that you can do’. I’ve always felt like I could probably get any job that a man could get.
“Now, we’re getting to the age where predominantly a woman would have previously been shelved and sort-of retired. I don’t think it’s like that any more.
“I’m still working a lot. Claudia Winkleman, Tess Daly, Sara Cox, Zoe Ball . . . we’re a new group of midlife women who are still doing it.”
- Your Mum, My Dad starts on ITV1 on Monday at 9pm.
THE NINE PARENTS UP FOR ROMANCE
TV reporter Jess Lester takes a look at the nine contestants about to enter the Your Mum, My Dad house alongside their sons and daughters who hope to help them find love . . . while they secretly watch along with the rest of the nation.
Paul, 47, a Londoner who lives in Bath, and student daughter Mazey.
The decorating company owner says: “Random dates now, that’s definitely the way forward. They take you out of your comfort zone.”
Mazey adds: “He’s got a million hobbies. He loves cooking, photography, tries to play the piano. . .
Roger, 58, a postman, and daughter Jess, 28, from Derbyshire.
The silver fox says: “Following my wife passing, I didn’t really want to meet anyone. But I’m going on the show to get some confidence.”
Jess adds: “It was a joint thing with my brother and sister . . . we were happy for him to start dating.”
Elliot, 53, a PE teacher from Essex, and student son Zachary, 21.
Elliot once took a date to a bathroom shop. He says: “[It] was having a really good sale and I needed to get to it. So I took her to that…”
Zachary said of his dad: “Maybe being a little bit selfish with his routine and not wanting to give that up.”
Janey, 47, from West Sussex and son Will, 19, a student.
Janey, a singer, says: “William would say my dating history is tragic! I’d say varied.”
Will adds: “It’s getting a bit desperate now. If it takes me to get involved, then that’s apparently how dire things have got.”
Clayton, 57, from Notts, a pastoral support officer and Christian, 35.
Clayton admits: “I’m looking for someone who I find physically attractive, I won’t make any excuses for that.”
But Christian warns him: “There’s a lot of pretty women out there, but they can be mean on the inside.”
Caroline, 51, a tech adviser from South Lanarks, and Karli, 20.
The mother of three says: “I’m a bad judge of character with my dating history.”
Daughter Karli, a flight attendant, agrees: “All the guys she’s been with before have been liars and cheats.”
Monique, 50, and daughter Taiya, 21, a student, from North London.
The therapist says: “I’ve tried apps, which I can’t stand. I end up with a list of messages and waiting for a man to ask me out which never happens – they just want to talk.”
Taiya adds: “A lot of the time I do tell her not to be so fussy.”
Sharon, 53, a safeguarding officer from Sunderland, and Tia, 24
Sharon says of her dream man: “Hugh Jackman. He’s obviously very handsome too, I love stubble”
But social media influencer Tia says: “I’d want her not to go for the six-pack men, they’re not all that. Go for a dad bod for a change.”
Natalie, 44, a relationship recovery coach and son Kaliel, from Bournemouth.
Natalie says: “I never tend to meet people that match me or where I am in my life.”
Gas and plumbing apprentice Kaliel adds: “I think she’ll be embarrassed that I’ve been watching her.”