There has been just one subject under discussion at Radio 2’s HQ in recent weeks: Where on earth is Zoe Ball?
Her absence since early August from her flagship breakfast show, for which she is paid just shy of £1 million per year, has been kept such a secret that even colleagues she sees most days are in the dark.
The BBC, meanwhile, have remained silent about her whereabouts. Even yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Corporation wouldn’t confirm or deny whether she would be back on Monday after six weeks away, instead sticking to the party line that she was due back ‘later this month’.
Moreover, she wouldn’t even say whether Zoe was expected back, which begs the question, do the BBC even know when their highest paid female presenter is going to make a return?
Zoe’s own team have remained tight lipped on the matter, too, with one source saying: ‘This is all very tricky.’
Her fans, though, have not stayed quiet. Hundreds have taken to social media in recent weeks to share their concerns for the star, whose salary at the Corporation is second only to that of Gary Lineker.
Indeed, her last day in the studio was August 8, three days after she returned from a holiday in Ibiza and a weekend celebrating at the Brighton Pride festival with her son Woody and daughter Nelly.
In her last Instagram posted on August 5, which showed her beaming next to her offspring, she explained what a wonderful break she had enjoyed.
Zoe Ball spotted with a group of people, including ex-husband Fatboy Slim, at the The Big Beach Cafe in Hove last Sunday
Next to the snap, she wrote: ‘Jet lagged, Brighton pride lagged [and] Ibiza lagged’ and ended her post with the term #mumnbass – a reference to her favourite genre of music, drum’n’bass. So what on earth has happened to see Zoe disappear from the airwaves three days later, to be replaced by close friend Gaby Roslin and fellow Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills, who usually hosts the afternoon slot?
Many suspect that she has been struggling with her mother Julia Peckham’s tragically sudden death from cancer in April. In March, Zoe announced that she would be taking time off to care for Julia, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a month earlier. She eventually returned to work on May 13.
That the loss of her mother was a deep blow was evident in the tribute she posted after Julia’s passing: ‘Sleep tight, dear Mama. Thank you for teaching us how to love unconditionally, to always show courage and empathy, and how, even in the darkest of days, laughter is the greatest of gifts.
‘We are bereft without you but will hold so tight to each other.’
But the Mail can also reveal that Zoe has moved house in recent weeks, selling her beautiful countryside home in the idyllic Sussex village of Newick which she bought for £2,025,000 in August 2020.
She is understood to have upped sticks in August and moved to a townhouse between Brighton and Hove, close to her ex-husband DJ Norman Cook, the father of her two children, from whom she separated in 2016. They divorced in 2020.
Some suggest that the change is a ‘new start’ for Zoe, 53, who has been single since she split from model Michael Reed last year after five-and-a-half years together. ‘Zoe obviously got fed up with life in the country and wanted to move to somewhere a bit more lively,’ said a source with knowledge of her new home.
She has been absent since early August from her flagship breakfast show, for which she is paid just shy of £1 million per year
‘She has become really engrossed in making her house just as she wants it and has been happily ordering furniture and buying bits and bobs to make it perfect.’ Indeed, Zoe was spotted at Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre on Wednesday, with one onlooker describing their surprise at seeing her.
‘Everyone has been wondering where she has been and then there she was, right in front of my eyes,’ they said.
And last Sunday she was seen laughing and smiling with Cook and a group of friends outside a cafe in Hove. Witnesses said she spent an hour there before they moved on for a walk along the beachfront. These sightings of an apparently relaxed Zoe will be a relief for her fans. But there are some who have been less sympathetic about her absence.
One listener tweeted: ‘Complete misuse of licence payers’ funds. Zoe Ball gets to pick and choose her contract terms and conditions. She’s never at work, more holidays than you can imagine. Are we mugs paying for this? No comment.’
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Another added: ‘Why are the BBC still paying Zoe Ball when she is still off air?’
Given that Zoe’s salary is paid by the licence fee, one wonders why the BBC have not been more transparent about the reason for her absence. In the past, she has had time away to work on other projects. In May 2023, she took several weeks off to host ITV show Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream, on the Greek island of Corfu.
At the time her listeners thought she was on holiday. Zoe told me then that she loses track of what projects she can talk about, saying: ‘The thing is I have to keep so many secrets on the radio, there were things to do with Eurovision, things to do with the Coronation and there were things to do with Mamma Mia!, so sometimes I actually forget to tell people when I can tell them.’
The Mail can reveal that Zoe has moved house in recent weeks, selling her countryside home in the Sussex village of Newick and moving to a townhouse between Brighton and Hove
There is no suggestion that Zoe has been working on other projects on this occasion. Still, the silence has caused rumblings of dissatisfaction at the Beeb. ‘Nothing has been said,’ revealed one BBC insider. ‘You’d have at least thought if she was ill, they’d say or if she was taking unpaid leave they would say, but there has been nothing which, when [her salary] is coming from the public purse, is pretty unacceptable.’
However, one of Zoe’s BBC colleagues points out that unlike many of broadcaster’s stars, the breakfast show is a relentless gig – she is on air five days a week from 6.30am to 9.30am – and some suspect that she may be burnt out.
‘Zoe’s show is like a television show, really,’ they told me. ‘Guests still actually go into the studio rather than have a quick chat on Zoom so she has to be fully present and look the part.
‘She is up so early and she has a long journey in. She is up at 3am, and travels into London.
‘You compare that to some of the other BBC employees, they have a couple of shows each week and go home again. We have been very concerned about her and hope that she is OK.’ They are perhaps right to be worried.
Zoe has certainly been through the mill.
As well as her mother’s death, in May 2017 her partner Billy Yates killed himself at his home in Putney, south-west London. His death devastated Zoe, with friends saying she had to cope with an overwhelming sense of shock and grief.
The following year, she broke down in tears as she discussed the last time she saw him alive.
‘He got on his bike and he cycled off and he turned round and he blew me a kiss goodbye, and that was the last time I saw him,’ she said.
Whatever has been going on, fans hope the usually bubbly Zoe will soon be back on track. Schedules published by the BBC reveal that her temporary replacement Scott Mills, 51, is returning to his usual afternoon slot next week. The show’s blurb says: ‘Wake up and embrace the day with Zoe Ball and the team. Zoe keeps the tunes rolling on Maximum Music Monday.’
But whether she will be back at the microphone on Monday remains to be seen.
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