Davina McCall is disappointed that “enjoyment of sex for women" is still "ridiculously taboo”.
The former ‘Big Brother’ host explores the “super-depressing” conventions around female sexuality in her new Channel 4 documentary ‘Davina McCall’s The Pill’ and warned about the possibility of UK women following the footsteps of the US by removing their sexual freedom.
The 55-year-old television presenter told The Sun newspaper: “Enjoyment of sex for women is ridiculously taboo. That’s super-depressing, and we have to be very, very careful that we don’t go down the American route where we are more and more marginalised as sexual beings.
“Denying us access to contraception is a really huge part of that.
“I mean, the idea that it’s now harder to access contraception than it was ten or 20 years ago is obscene.”
Davina - who has daughters Holly, 21, Tilly, 19 and son Chester, 16, with her 54-year-old ex Matthew Robertson - questioned why the prevention of pregnancy should lead to a “compromise” in life.
She said: “Why should we compromise our quality of life to prevent pregnancy?”
The ‘Your Mum, My Dad’ host details in her own “chaotic and emotional” experience with the Pill as a teenager in the programme.
In the documentary - which airs on Thursday (08.06.23) - Davina said: “I went on the Pill when I was 15. I was madly in love with my first love.
“I said to my dad, ‘I’d quite like to go on the Pill’, and he said, ‘Well, wait until you’re 16’.
“And I thought, ‘I know what’s going to happen, I’m not going to wait until I’m 16’.
“I thought it was quite a grown-up attitude to take. So I took myself off to a sexual health clinic and they were very nice and very kind, and they suggested a Pill, and I took it.
“But my life was quite chaotic and emotional at the time — as it is for many teenagers — and it’s very hard to say how much of a part the Pill played in that. I’ve got no idea.”
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