BBC Radio 2 host Zoe Ball – who has returned to the radio station for a new Saturday afternoon show – will host VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember for the BBC tonight
Presenter Zoe Ball will be back on TV later tonight as the 80th anniversary celebrations for VE Day continue. She will follow in the footsteps of Sophie Raworth who led the BBC’s coverage of the special occasion earlier this week.
Zoe, 54, will front VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember from 8pm until 10.10pm on BBC One this evening. It will showcase a concert from Horse Guards Parade in London and has been described as the “finale” of the celebrations.
Her involvement with the special comes after she returned to BBC Radio 2 just days ago to launch her new Saturday afternoon show. Zoe had hosted the station’s weekday breakfast show for six years before leaving in December. She had announced her departure weeks prior after an extended absence last summer, which came following the death of her late mother Julia Peckham in April last year.
Ahead of her return to TV tonight, there’s been renewed interest in Zoe’s life off-screen. There’s been no update on her dating life, with her thought to be single, but the Mirror has now taken a look back at her previous relationships.
Fatboy Slim
Zoe had a high-profile relationship with musician Norman Cook, now 61 – better known as Fatboy Slim – after meeting whilst both in Ibiza in 1998. The presenter was out there hosting BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show from the island.
She got married to the DJ the following year and their son Woody Cook, now 24, was born in 2000. The couple then briefly split in 2003 after she had an affair. She told the Mirror in 2012: “It was a mix of everything. I wasn’t happy.”
Zoe reflected: “[We] met in Ibiza and lived this crazy, party life and got married within a year. Then we had Woody and suddenly I was all settled down. I thought ‘do know each other?’ […] Reality hit me hard when we started a family.”
She ended up reconciling with Norman though and their youngest child Nelly Cook, now 15, was then born in 2010. Six years later, the couple however announced back in 2016 that they had decided to separate after 18 years together.
The exes have remained on good terms over the years. As previously reported, Zoe told Red magazine in 2020: “[Norman] is such a good friend and a good guy. It’s not always been easy and it’s taken time. He’s been through a lot, I’ve been through a lot, but now we’re in a great place as parents together.”
Zoe and Norman were said to be spending “more time” together last year following the loss of her mother. A source told OK! magazine in September: “Zoe has really struggled these past few months as she copes with the loss of her mum and just lots of changes in her life. And despite them splitting up, Norman is the one person she can still rely on and he has been her rock, as he always is.”
Speaking to the Mirror recently, their son Woody dismissed any suggestion of a rekindled romance though. Asked how his family are doing, he said: “It’s pretty good, for a half-estranged family unit. Not a lot of turmoil at the moment. We are very excited, the four of us. Not that we are actually ‘a family’. They are still very much not together. As much as the papers keep trying to insinuate they’re back together. Just to clarify that!”
Billy Yates
Following the end of her long-term relationship with her ex Norman, radio host Zoe began a romance with camera operator Billy Yates in 2017. The pair are said to have been friends for years before their relationship developed.
Billy was said to have given Zoe a “new lease on life”. Just months into their romance though, it was announced that he had died, aged 40. It was later reported that Billy had taken his own life and Zoe’s paid tribute in the years since.
Remembering him on Desert Island Discs in 2020, she said: “He had lived with depression for a huge chunk of his life. It’s so hard to sit and watch someone you love and care for struggle with mental health.” She shared: “Losing him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.”
Zoe continued: “I think something that’s really important to share [is] that there is hope. There is help available, there are ways, we’re still learning. For some people, the drugs work. For some people that isn’t the case. But I think it’s so isolating to be trapped in your mind like that, where you doubt yourself, you doubt everything you’ve ever known. You doubt your family love you. You doubt that your friends care for you.”
She added: “I don’t want people to remember him for how he died. I want people to remember Billy for how he lived his life. He was so full of love. He would help anyone in need. He was always there for all his friends. He brought so much [into our lives]. He loved to dance and he loved to laugh.”
Just days ago, she reflected on the loss on the anniversary of his death. Alongside a photo of her late partner, she wrote on Instagram: “8 years forever in our hearts Billface #mateswithyates.” She included emojis of a rose, stars and a heart.
Michael Reed
Zoe is said to have begun dating model Michael Reed towards the end of 2017. A source told the Sun in December that year: “She has had a tough time of it this year so deserves some happiness. It is early days with Michael but Zoe seems quite taken with him.”
Two years later, there was speculation that they had split up though the couple are now thought to have remained together after then. It was subsequently reported four years later that they had ended their relationship in 2023.
A source told the Sun two years ago: “Zoe is gutted.” They went on to say: “[They] started spending a lot less time together, went away on separate holidays and drifted apart. Now it seems the relationship has finally run its course.”
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