Zoe Ball, 49, has opened up about her mutual relationship with her ex-husband and father of her children, Norman Cook, 56, who’s alter-ego is DJ Fatboy Slim. Reflecting on the experiences that have shaped her life, she admits that co-parenting after a break-up has “not always been easy,” but insists that the pair are on good terms.
In an exclusive interview with Red Magazine, she spilt the beans and divulged intimate details about her private life fans may have not known.
“He [Norman Cook] is such a good friend and a good guy,” she said, branding him “the best dad”.
“It’s not always been easy and it’s taken time,” she admitted.
“He’s been through a lot, I’ve been through a lot, but now we’re in a great place as parents together.”
Zoe revealed that she and Norman often reflect on their parenting: “We do sometimes look at them [their childen] and go, ‘Wow, despite what we’ve been through, we made it’ because they’re brilliant kids.”
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The BBC radio host and the musician got married in Somerset in 1999 but briefly split in 2003.
They reconciled three months later, but in 2016 the pair announced their separation after 18 years of marriage.
In an emotional tweet, they expressed their sadness at the separation saying that they had “come to the end of our rainbow.”
They share two children together, 19-year-old Woody who appeared on Channel 4’s The Circle last year and 10-year-old Nelly.
Norman recently spoke about how he and Zoe weren’t too happy about their son going on a realty TV show, after years of trying to protect him from the spotlight.
“I wish I’d known [when I was younger] that you don’t have to be what people are expecting you to be,” she noted.
“You just have to be you. When you grow up as a woman, there is that confusion where you think, ‘I need to be this or that to fit in.’
“Now, I’m very much like, ‘No, this is what I am,’” she insisted.
And, although Zoe has had a tough time with love, she believes it “just keeps on coming.”
“Love fills your heart and it breaks your heart; it’s so unpredictable, you don’t know where it’s going to come from.
“To feel love is the most incredible feeling in the world. To lose it will nearly end you and take you to your knees, but there’s always more,” she said.
“You know, I look at my kids or my friends and think ‘I couldn’t love you any more.’ And then I do. Love just keeps on coming.”
The full interview appears in the January issue of Red, on sale 30th January.