Since stepping down from the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, Zoe Ball has opted for a more slow-paced life, spending her time ‘working in a local café’. The 54-year-old left her show in December to ‘focus on her family’, and leave behind her busy schedule and £950,000 salary.
Now, her son Woody, 24, has shared that Ball has been doing “lots of puzzles” and got back into gardening since leaving her role at the BBC. He shared it has been “funny” watching his “crazy party” parents Ball and Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, ditching their wild nights out for a more wholesome lifestyle. “In the last five years, it’s been funny watching my parents take up gardening,” he shared.
Ball’s son then revealed that his parents are now working in their local café. Fatboy Slim owns the Big Beach Café in Hove and is often seen working in the eatery wearing a name badge reading: “Norm.”
“These crazy party people I grew up with are now gardening, making puzzles and working in the local café. It’s very funny to see that transitional period, just as I’m kind of leaving the nest and now at the start of something big for me in music,” he told MailOnline.
Woody also spoke about his mother’s departure from BBC Radio 2, sharing his support and happiness towards her decision because he now gets to spend a lot more time with her: “It’s lovely seeing my mum more, because obviously she’s had quite a weird schedule for the last few years.”
When Ball announced her departure, she said in a statement on air, that she believed it was time to “start a new chapter”. However, she confirmed that she would be still be working with Radio 2 in some capacity after her exit.
She said: “Ok you lovely bunch, I have some news. After six years of fun times alongside you all on the Breakfast Show, I’ve decided it’s time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
“You know I think the world of you all listeners, and it truly has been such a privilege to share the mornings with you, to go through life’s little ups and downs, we got through the lockdown together, didn’t we?
“We’ve shared a hell of a lot, the good times, the tough times, there’s been a lot of laughter. And I am going to miss you cats. I’m going to miss my amazing Prod Squad who I adore. Already missing Mike, I’m going to miss Tina and Richie. They’ve all become like family to me, like you lot. But I won’t miss the 4am alarm call, if I’m completely honest. So my last Breakfast show will be with you on the 20th of December and then its high kicks all the way to Christmas, gang.
“I’m not going to be a stranger, I’m staying in the Radio 2 crew and family because it’s an amazing family – as we saw last week with Paddy’s fantastic Children in Need challenge – and I’ll have more news on that in the New Year.”
Ball co-hosted the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s magazine Live & Kicking alongside Jamie Theakston for three years from 1996. Then in 1998 she was the first female host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, a position she held until 2000.