Zoe Ball has explained that she quit her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show gig to be there for her daughter Nelly, 15, as she navigates GCSEs – but that the teenager is never at home anyway.
The 54-year-old broadcaster got candid on the latest episode of comedians Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe’s Parenting Hell podcast, while discussing her and ex-husband Fatboy Slim’s two children; Nelly, 15, and Woody, 25.
During the chat, she touched on her Radio 2 breakfast show exit, and admitted things haven’t quite worked out as she anticipated.
‘I gave up work because she’s going to do her GCSEs, but she’s never here, she’s out with her mates,’ Zoe explained of Nelly as the co-hosts chuckled.
‘I’m like, “I’ve given up work for you!”‘ said Zoe, who turned her back on a £950,000-a-year salary following her mum Julia’s death from cancer in 2024, so she could support Nelly with her exams, as well as help her navigate the difficulties of being a teenager.
The broadcaster – who was replaced by DJ Scott Mills, 51, on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show last year – added: ‘It’s only since giving up the breakfast show that I now do the school run in the morning, and I love it.#
‘She’s got GCSEs this year, but that was part of giving up the breakfast show. I was like, I really want to be there for her because it’s going to be a tough year.
‘And also for girls, 15 is booze and boys. It’s a nightmare. It’s an absolute minefield.’
Zoe – who returned to Radio 2 in May to present her afternoon Saturday show – split from Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook, in September 2016 after 18 years together, with their divorce finalised in 2020.
While many of Zoe’s friends went through ‘toxic’ divorces, she remains close friends with the DJ, who she called a ‘brilliant dad’.
She said: ‘The one really good thing is he will be there at the drop of a hat anytime.
‘So if one of us can’t be there, he’s always there. And we support each other very well like that.
‘And he’s always available on the end of a text if there’s some serious parenting to be done, which recently there has been, young Nelly Cook.’
But Zoe does get annoyed by the DJ working more than ever.
‘The only frustrating thing, I suppose, is that he is always working because he loves what he does,’ she said. ‘So sometimes I’m like, “Oi, that’s my weekend, oi.”
‘But actually, that works out quite well, but he loves what he does. So I think he’s done more gigs this year than ever.’
After their split, Zoe struck up a romance with TV cameraman Billy Yates, who took his own life following a long battle with depression, aged 40 in May 2017.
Zoe was then in a relationship with 48-year-old fashion model-and-carpenter Michael Reed until 2023.
Elsewhere in her Parenting Hell podcast interview, the broadcaster revealed Woody and Nelly give her relationship advice.
She said: ‘My kids give me advice on my relationships.Like, “Mum, maybe you’re overreacting, maybe you’re being a bit… Maybe just calm down.”‘
Rob replied: ‘I think if you’ve done your job well, your children are emotionally more intelligent than you.’
Agreeing, Zoe confirmed: ‘Yeah, exactly. And mine definitely are. I mean, to be honest with you, they were more emotionally intelligent than me at five.’
Zoe also explained how gardening is her happy place and mused that in a few years she might get a job in a garden centre
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