Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, has opened up about his past relationship with Zoe Ball and the warning he received from his manager before they went public. The former couple were married from 1999 to 2016 and share two children, Woody, 25, and Nelly, 16.
A Whirlwind Romance
In what Zoe has previously described as a whirlwind romance, the pair met in Ibiza through mutual friends and were married within a year. Reflecting on the early stages of their relationship, Fatboy Slim described it as "absolute chaos".
Manager's Warning
As their relationship became more serious, Norman revealed his manager warned him about the level of publicity that would follow. Speaking to Davina McCall on her Begin Again podcast, he shared: "I had this sort of thing of being a musician and everything and then when I told my manager [about his romance with Zoe] he went, 'You do realise if you and Zo are a couple, your life is never going to be the same'.
"I said, 'What do you mean?' Because at that point I was sort of at the top of my power and at that point she was doing the Radio One Breakfast Show and going [places].
"And it's like, 'You put you two together, this is going to be, you know, that whole tabloid thing' which I never really had before, I was only like band famous," the 62-year-old added. "I wasn't tabloid famous and my manager said, 'I don't know if it's going to be good or bad but your life is going to change'."
Adjusting to Fame
After going public with their romance, Norman said he adjusted to increased fame with Zoe's support. "Zoe, she was kind of used to it and she talked me through it. But we were both partying a lot and all our friends were partying a lot, but also working really hard," he explained.
"For the first couple of years, she was still doing the breakfast show and we would be in clubs and people would go, 'Zo aren't you on the air in like two hours?'
"So we were juggling both having very successful careers that took up a lot of our time, but also partying a lot but going through it together was great."
Praising his ex-wife, he went on to describe her as "a really good teacher" and credited her with keeping him "down to earth". "We had this tremendous adventure together," he added, also referring to them as "a power couple".
Life After Marriage
While their marriage ended following a turbulent period, the DJ said they have managed to move on and become "really good friends". The pair still live near each other in Brighton, with their daughter recently moving in with Norman after years of living with Zoe, while their son Woody currently resides in Bristol.
