Zoe Ball has opened up about an unexpected twist in her personal life, revealing her teenage daughter Nelly has chosen to live mainly with her father, DJ Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim. This development comes just over a year after the presenter quit her lucrative BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show to prioritise time with her children.
A Quieter Home
The broadcaster, 55, made the emotional admission on her Dig It podcast with Jo Whiley this week, confessing her once-busy family home in East Sussex has become 'so quiet' since Nelly, 16, decided to base herself at her ex-husband's residence. 'Mine's so quiet,' Zoe said. 'Nell's based more at her dad's now because I think she's got to that point of, oh, can I just be in one place because all her [GCSE] revision notes are on the wall, her dad's, and it's like just not having to move from house to house. So she just is spending more time there now.'
Background on Career Change
Zoe stepped down from the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in December 2024, walking away from a £950,000-a-year salary, citing her desire to 'focus on family' and spend more time with her daughter in the run-up to her GCSEs. Despite the separation, Zoe insisted the arrangement works well, with Norman living just 'around the corner' in Hove. 'I can nip around any time, which is great and she can come here if she gets upset about anything. She'd be like, mum, I need you. But it's less and less,' she admitted.
Family Dynamics
The former couple, who married in 1999 and separated in 2016, also share 25-year-old son Woody. Zoe described the siblings' different personalities, saying: 'Nell is such a daddy's girl. And Woody is a real mummy's boy. I don't mean that in a derogatory way to either of them. Woody always comes to me to talk about emotional stuff.' She added: 'You can't have favourites, but often siblings think there is a favourite because sometimes there are things that you'll do with one of your kids, that the other one's are like, oh, you do that with them, but you don't do that with me. I try to always give my kids equal attention, equal love.'
Norman Cook's Perspective
DJ Norman, 62, recently told The Mirror he was pleased to be back on stage headlining Radio 1's Big Weekend festival as a break from helping Nelly with exam prep. He said: 'I've been off the road for three weeks so I'm like a caged tiger, ready to play. After weeks of revision I need to get out and kick off some cobwebs.'
