Despite being separated for almost a decade, Zoe Ball has reportedly been spending more time with her ex husband Fatboy Slim.
The BBC Radio 2 host, who has just returned to work following a long absence, used to be married to Norman Cook – aka Fatboy Slim. They have had a rocky time since their split in 2016, having walked down the aisle in 1999. However, it seems the pair have managed to move on and form a close bond in recent times.
Last month, Zoe was spotted for the first time during her BBC Radio 2 leave alongside Norman. They were seen laughing together with a group of people outside a café in Hove. In March, Zoe said she would be taking time off to care for her mother Julia Peckham, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She later paid a heartbreaking tribute when announcing her mum had died in May.
It has been claimed Zoe and Norman are “spending more time together than ever” as the presenter grieves. A friend from Hove told the Daily Mail: “They always seem to be together.” While another claimed to the publication that the former couple have been attending their son Woody’s DJ gigs together.
Zoe recently made the move from her £2million country home to a townhouse in Brighton, where Norman also lives. It has been claimed the former couple come together for family occasions as well as Sunday lunches with their children Woody, 23, and daughter Nelly, 14.
The pair had met in 1997 when Zoe flew out to Ibiza to collaborate with Norman on a show for BBC Radio 1. They tied the knot two years later and welcomed son Woody in the year 2000. However, the years that followed weren’t exactly smooth sailing and, in 2003, the pair briefly separated after Norman, now 61, discovered Zoe had been unfaithful with his pal DJ Dan Peppe.
They reconciled just three months later and, in 2010, welcomed a second child, Nelly. By 2016 however, Zoe and Norman announced they had ‘come to the end of our rainbow’. Zoe found love again with cameraman Billy Yates in 2017 but tragically their relationship was cut brutally short after Billy was found dead at his London flat in May of that year. It was determined he had died by suicide.
In December 2017, broken-hearted Zoe began dating Michael Reed, but in May 2023 the pair had “drifted apart”. Less is known about Norman’s love life after the split. In 2018, The Sun reported that the DJ had moved on with Zoe’s close friend Nicola Lokko, leaving her ‘freaked out’. An insider claimed: “Norman deserves to be happy, but his choice of partner has upset the apple cart.”