{"id":30941,"date":"2024-01-22T12:58:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T11:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aa323ef9-33a9-404e-a3d3-376bd4748237"},"modified":"2024-01-22T13:34:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T12:34:27","slug":"davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Davina McCall on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Rich Marshall\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 22 January 2024 at 11:58 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Davina McCall was born on 16 October 1967 in Wimbledon, London and is 56 years old. She is best known for presenting Big Brother <\/em>from 2000 to 2010 and presenting other TV shows including The Million Pound Drop, The Biggest Loser <\/em>and Long Lost Family<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>

At the start of her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/a><\/em>, first broadcast in 2009, Davina says her parents divorced when she was three, an experience which left her “kind of split in two”. It\u2019s a schism that was accentuated by her parents living in different countries – the UK, where Davina largely grew up, and France, where she spent holidays with her alcoholic mother. Researching her family tree, Davina hopes, will help her reconcile these worlds.<\/p>

Davina\u2019s research focuses on two key figures. She begins a family rumour that one of her father\u2019s forebears, James Thomas Bedborough (1787-1860), was an illegitimate<\/a> son of George IV.<\/p>

Davina heads for The National Archives in Kew. Here, with the help of Charles Mosley, an expert in royal ancestry<\/a>, she learns that James was apprenticed as a stonemason. James did well. When George IV ascended to the throne in 1820, the infamously profligate monarch began expensive renovations on Windsor Castle. As King George\u2019s master mason, James oversaw much of the work.<\/p>

An entrepreneur, James saw an opportunity as Windsor, now fashionable because of George\u2019s patronage, grew rapidly. James became a property developer and mayor of Windsor. There may be no proof of a direct royal connection, but Davina is proud to learn she\u2019s related to a man blessed with \u201cthe kind of ambition that drives you to do the best that you possibly can\u201d.<\/p>

But there\u2019s another side to this ambition. When he died, James left a muddled will<\/a> and mortgages equivalent to more than \u00a32 million in today\u2019s money, cash used to finance his business and the family\u2019s own Upton Park mansion. The stress of sorting out James\u2019s finances led to the suicides of two of his sons.<\/p>

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t evil and it wasn\u2019t done in cruelty, it was a mistake,\u201d says Davina. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t judge other people by their mistakes because I\u2019ve made so many of my own.\u201d<\/p>

Leaving leafy Berkshire, Davina heads for Paris. If England represents stability for Davina, France is excitement and adventure \u2013 not necessarily an entirely good thing if your mother was a \u201cbig kid\u201d who liked a double Ricard at breakfast.<\/p>

Davina wants to learn more about her great grandfather, C\u00e9lestin Hennion (1862-1915). There\u2019s another royal connection here: Davina has a medal that George V gave to C\u00e9lestin for organising security during a royal visit to France in 1914.<\/p>

The son of a farm labourer, C\u00e9lestin rose through the ranks to become chief of police, helped by the support of France\u2019s two-time prime minister, Georges Clemenceau. More than simply achieving high office, C\u00e9lestin is credited in France with being \u201cthe father of modern policing\u201d. He was also central to one of the key events in 19th-century French history, the Dreyfus Affair.<\/p>

Alfred Dreyfus was an officer of Jewish descent who was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement on the notorious Devil\u2019s Island.<\/p>

When Dreyfus returned to France in 1899 for a second trial, C\u00e9lestin not only took charge of security, but offered evidence that ultimately helped prove his charge\u2019s innocence. The case caused a crisis in France, symbolic of a wider tension between republicans and conservatives. It also highlighted anti-Semitism in French society.<\/p>

Learning about the staunchly republican C\u00e9lestin, a man still widely admired, is \u201crevelatory\u201d for Davina. \u201cHe had all the qualities that you would want your perfect man to have,\u201d she says, \u201cloyalty, courage, integrity, ambition, strength of character, good looking.\u201d<\/p>

Davina finishes her journey by visiting C\u00e9lestin\u2019s grave. Rather than dwelling on a family split in two, she now prefers to celebrate the similarities between James and C\u00e9lestin, ambitious yet principled men, ancestors of whom she can be proud.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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By Rich Marshall Published: Monday, 22 January 2024 at 11:58 AM Davina McCall was born on 16 October 1967 in Wimbledon, London and is 56 years old. She is best known for presenting Big Brother from 2000 to 2010 and presenting other TV shows including The Million Pound Drop, The Biggest Loser and Long Lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30942,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/01\/davina-mccall-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rich Marshall Published: Monday, 22 January 2024 at 11:58 AM Davina McCall was born on 16 October 1967 in Wimbledon, London and is 56 years old. She is best known for presenting Big Brother from 2000 to 2010 and presenting other TV shows including The Million Pound Drop, The Biggest Loser and Long Lost…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/30941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}