MO Gilligan has hailed recovering fellow Masked Singer panellist Davina McCall as a “warrior” – and revealed they send each other pictures of otters holding hands.
Davina, 57 made the shock announcement last month that she was diagnosed with a 14 mm brain tumour just before undergoing surgery to remove it.
The presenter reassured fans that her doctors believed the tumour, called a colloid cyst, was benign.
It is a health issue, Davina said, that affects three in a million people.
Comedian Mo, 36, has now told of how he insists on calling McCall “Auntie Davina”.
While discussing Davina, who he called a true friend, it was revealed that she believes the biggest thing she’s learned from her operation is how grateful she is.
Appearing on the High Performance podcast, Gilligan said: “We had to do press once, and they said ‘If you could be on the Masked Singer, who would you be?’
“And I said ‘I like otters – they’re my thing’. And Davina said ‘Oh my God, I Iike them too’.
“I said ‘I’ve got this page, otters, look at this’.
“So we send each other otter videos.”
Speaking about her ordeal, Mo said: “I sent her a message of getting well soon. Davina’s a proper warrior man.”
Describing The Masked Singer star as down to earth and genuine, he said he was shocked to learn she goes running in busy central London parks.
Mo added: “She runs you know. She’ll run in central (London).
I say ‘You’re Davina McCall’.
“She said ‘Who am I to not want to go to the park and run because someone might recognise me?’
“One of the most down to earth, genuine people within television. And I’d call her a friend as well – I don’t have a lot of people who are friends within the industry – but top people. I call her Auntie Davina as well.
“People are like ‘Davina McCall’. I say ‘it’s actually Auntie Davina’.”
Mo admitted that the seasoned presenter put him at ease on his first day on the ITV competition.
He said: “When I first did Masked Singer I was so nervous, and I sat next to Davina, and she’s very much like ‘Oh, I’ve seen your comedy, my daughters are big fans and my son’.
“(I said) I’ve got to do the BRITS and I’m writing my book – I’m doing that’. She goes ‘Ahh, oh my God’. And it’s so genuine.
“She’s done so much within TV and she’s so grounded. When it comes to advice it’s not ‘do this, do that’ – she’s like as honest, as pure.
“Some of the things I ask her, sometimes I say ‘how many of those fitness DVDs do you sell?’ And she goes ‘I don’t know, but probably done about at least ten million’. It’s not a brag for her in any way.
“What she’s done in her career, but still so grounded.
Jake Humphrey who interviewed Gilligan, told him: “We were exchanging messages about you being on here and she said the biggest thing that she’s learned is how unbelievably grateful she is with what she’s been through and where she is now’.”
“Life can change in seconds, minutes, days,” he continued.
The full interview can be heard on the High Performance podcast on Monday 16th December on all major platforms.
