Begin Again with Davina McCall - Begin Again Moments: What Makes a Successful Marriage?

Episode Date: September 6, 2026

Gary Lineker and Patsy Kensit join Davina for a special Moments episode about marriage, love and life. Full episodes available now wherever you get your podcasts! Sponsored by: Garnier Nutrisse: UK's NO1 hair dye, chosen by 2 million women. Davina is shade 5 Mocha Brown. Find yours: www.garnier.co.uk/our-brands/hair-colour/nutrisse-creme Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Why did you think that marriage was important to you? Because I was a hopeless romantic

and that's sort of been something that's carried through all my relationships. And, you know, I just seem to have married all my boyfriends. That's really the truth. I mean, I've not. I wish I'd played the field and, you know, been taking advantage of, you know, my youth and the situations I found myself in, but I just always chose to be married. I was never happier than being married to someone.

There is a, I mean, it is different being married. Yeah. There is, you know, I'm thinking about your mum and your dad. Yes. And how even though your dad was a complicated man and you really loved him. Yes. When you were a little girl.

Yeah, of course. You know, before you went inside work for a while. And your mum, you could see, you understood why your mum saw a thing. Yes, of course, yeah. So when they were together, you know, maybe that kind of was an influence for you. Do you think so? Was it a good example of a marriage? You know, I think I've become, like I said, at 14 when he'd been away for seven years.

And my brother and I were sworn to secrecy about this. So nobody on our street, we'd actually moved to the local councillor stayed by that point. And those, you know, it was very everyone, you know, everyone's business and quite, it was this sort of close, like Brookside close a little bit. Everybody knew. Everybody knew everything. So my brother and I had to pretend for seven years that, oh, yes, our dad's in South Africa. That's what we had to maintain. And because my mum said, you can't, that, this is what you.

say you say this at school. They were like, so who's your dad going to come? He's in South Africa. It was just that. And then, you know, oh, he's back from South Africa. So it's just restrictive that for a kid, like to have to lie about something. To have secrets like that. Yeah, it's big.

They weigh very heavy on a young person's soul. And like I said, I would do anything to protect my mom to help her to literally. anything for her. And so I just felt like, and she was so beautiful. I looked like my dad, my mom was just this, you know, violet eyes and its beautiful skin and, you know, very Irish, real Irish beauty. And I always thought she could have had a much better life. I didn't, you know, but she did love him very deeply. And we'd be away on jobs and some of the other chaperones, of their kids, whatever, we're carrying on with crew members and all this stuff. My mother was never like that.

She really wasn't. And when he died and we went to the hospital to see the body and we walked in together and I just remember going, oh, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, and sort of stroking his face. And I really saw love. Love. Yeah. It was very sweet. and it was very sad

but it also showed you that it was possible you know against all odds was a very complicated relationship it made me feel I think there are so many couples who get together, they're in love

and then they stay for their kids or whatever and they don't really love each other anymore and the kids can feel it but for you your mum loved your dad until his dying breath. Yeah, it's very rare.

And I think it was also, it was a great example to me of a partnership and a patient woman. She was very patient. And it was good for me to see that. Yeah. That they really had something together. This segment was sponsored by Garnier.

Oh, lady over there. Hi. What's your name? Shoshama. Shoshana. We've got a colleague at work, Emma, who wants to have her hair coloured. I'm trying to find somebody to come with me to come and colour her hair with some Garnier Nutris at work. Yeah, why not? Would you really?

Follow me, follow me. So this is the Begin Again studio. And this is Emma! Shoshana seemed really confident she has coloured her friend's hair and stuff before. We've got to put this one into here and shake to activate the colour. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Already the colour's lovely. The shade that we are doing on Emma is Mokka Brown, which is my shade.

Mine, I own this. I don't. There are actually 35 shades to choose from. It's got fruit oils in it. They are what nourishes it. Emma, you're very lucky. You have no grey hairs. But Garnier Nutris, the permanent colour's got 100% grey coverage.

I can vouch for that. That is it. Oh wow. Okay. Easier to do it yourself. Do you see what you mean? easier than you thought? Very easy. Just like putting like hair oil in. Yeah. Yeah. It's like so easy. Time to go. Go Emma! Oh my god it looks great! Oh my god, I'm not being funny.

You've done a great job. Look at that. Can we just discuss the shine? That's amazing. Are you pleased with it? Do you like it? Love, love, love, love, love. How confident are you now out of 10? Oh 10 out of 10. That was a lot simpler than I thought I'm so pleased. We did a thing. Thank you. Trusting us. You guys have done amazing. And thank you, Garnia and Eutrice. Love you.

You mentioned earlier about, you know, you've been married twice. And obviously, you and Michelle, I know, because I've done it, splitting up with somebody in the public eye is a fucking nightmare. It's horrible, yeah. Oh, my God. And you were kind of on good terms with both your exes. Exactly. Can you tell me through what that's like going through that?

It's so difficult to do it because it becomes a public. And I don't understand, you know, people say, well, it's part and parcel of being a famous or a celebrity or whichever way you want to describe it. But, you know, personal lives and with you know, things. Basically, I look back and I look back and we had this thing, particularly back then, whereas that is really that's a sight on your you know that you get divorced that's a failure

you're to someone has to you used to have this thing that someone has to take the blame which was ridiculous someone's got to be at fault to get a divorce exactly thankfully that law has now changed because it was ridiculous

one of you had to admit and you not only had to say we had to invent something we had to invent something for it it was ridiculous I mean I was going to I took the blame for both marriages, but we had to make up the thing

because actually it was just an amicable arrangement because, you know, we'd been, I look at it as I had two, people say, the failures, no, I had two really successful managers. Yeah, you did. Really good. 20 years together, four children, Michelle. Danielle, we had a few years.

We split in the end because of children. And we're best mates, absolutely best mates now. We see each other regularly. So, and it's, and it works. And, you know, I'm not sure. were meant to be the same people forever. Some people are, which is great, and other people are not.

But, you know, going through it in the media and it's front page news and it's like, you know, when you've got kids as well, it's, it makes it really, really hard to deal with. But it is part and parcel of being in the public eye, but I don't think it should be, at least fair.