Since making her presenting debut in 1992, Davina McCall has been a formidable force in the world of television - and become a well-loved and respected household name.

Part of this is down to McCall’s incredible resilience: she’s never been anything but honest about her past, sharing details about her battles with both alcohol and heroin in order to raise awareness.

Now, the TV veteran has opened up once more about the importance of facing life’s ups and downs as she navigates her way through a divorce from her husband, Matthew Robertson, of 17 years.

“[You] need to experience difficulty to learn how to be resilient,” she tells Red magazine. “If you haven’t been through anything difficult, the minute you do, it will hit you like a freight train and you won’t know what to do because you’ve never been given the tools to deal with it.”

During her early twenties, McCall battled with an alcohol addiction and, after her estranged mother passed away, she turned to drugs to find solace. But, she looks back knowing that all of these experiences have empowered her to be able to “deal with anything”.

“When I think of all the stuff that happened with my mum in my childhood, and the drugs and the alcohol, and my sister dying, and knowing I got through all that… all of those things make you think ‘throw anything at me – I’ll be okay’,” McCall says.

Why Davina McCall had to ‘grieve’ alcohol after giving it up