Zoe Ball, 49, has dished some serious gossip about the first time she met her ex-husband Norman Cook, who’s musical alias is DJ Fatboy Slim. She recalls how there was “a bit of wooing involved” before they became an item.
Speaking candidly on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, she told host Lauren Laverne about the first time she met her ex.
“I think meeting Norman, is when stuff ramped up even more so,” she began.
“I remember them [BBC bosses] coming in and saying Radio 1 is going to go to Ibiza and I was like ‘OK that sounds fun, that’ll be lovely.’
“I’d never met Norman before but I loved Fatboy Slim, I’d loved the Housemartins and if you’d of shown me a video of the Housemartins when I was 15 years old and said ‘You’re going to marry him, that guy in the video there,’ I’d be like ‘Are you crazy? Of course I’m not!’” the BBC DJ giggled.
READ MORE: Zoe Ball: BBC Radio 2 host mentions ex-husband Fatboy Slim
She recalled that pal and fellow DJ Sara Cox had predicted the pair would hit it off, saying: “You’re going to love Norman Cook when you meet him.”
And, just like her friend thought, Zoe admitted that she did love him.
“I met Norm and I did indeed love him!” she confessed.
“There was this bonkers brilliant chap who played records and made people dance and he would conduct the crowd and the audience,” she described one of Fatboy Slim’s Ibiza gigs.
Zoe sounded embarrassed as she exclaimed: “Who makes a DJ a mix-tape?!”
But she was glad she did, because he brought her “into the world of fantastic music.”
The couple tied the knot in 1999 and were married for 18 years, having two children together – 19-year-old Woody, who appeared on Channel 4′s The Circle last year, and Nelly, 10.
They later split in 2016 but still remain good friends and get together regularly for family occasions.
But while she was reminiscing on her life with her ex-husband, she also spoke about her grief at losing her boyfriend Billy Yates to suicide in 2017, describing the tragedy as the “hardest thing” she’s ever dealt with.
She said: “He’d lived with depression for a huge chunk of his life. It’s so hard to sit and watch someone you love and care for struggle with mental health.
“Losing him was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.”
Camera operator Billy, was 40 when he took his own life.
He and Zoe had been dating for a few months but the pair had been friends for years.
Zoe said she now wants him to be remembered for his life, not his death.
Dedicating the Frank Wilson song Do I Love You to Billy on Sunday’s show, she told Lauren: “He brought so much into my life, so much into his family and into his friend’s lives.
The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show airs weekdays at 6am on BBC Radio 2.
