Zoe Ball's journey to love after a 'double whammy' of grief: Presenter details the 'crazy, hideous nightmare' of losing her mum after a childhood estrangement before finding a happy ending with 'sexy' new boyfriend

She was once a wild party girl, burning the candle at both ends as she navigated her radio job with the BBC with the buzzing music scene during the Nineties. 

However former 'ladette' Zoe Ball is now living a more relaxed life, having taken a step back from her work to prioritise her children and mental health. 

Earlier this week the presenter's mystery boyfriend of over a year was revealed after the pair were spotted on a coastal stroll near their home in Brighton. 

Yet while Zoe has found love again, it has been a tough couple of years for the star after the tragic passing of her mother Julia in April 2024. 

It's been almost two years since her death, but Zoe is still riding the rollercoaster of grief, recently describing her mother's last few months as 'a crazy, awful hideous nightmare'. 

Julia died just 12 weeks after receiving a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and Zoe has since revealed she had an emotional breakdown following her death. 

However the pair didn't have a smooth sailing relationship and were in fact estranged until Zoe turned 18. 

Zoe was just two when Julia, then 21, walked out on the family, leaving her dad, the children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, to bring up their daughter. 

Reflecting on her mother's death and their estrangement in an interview with The Times last week she confessed: 'I was only a little girl. I wonder sometimes whether that double whammy of losing her when I was young, and then losing her again … But we made up for that time.'

When Zoe was six, her father Johnny married a dancer, Di, and the couple brought her up, along with her two half-brothers, Nick and Dan.

Julia also remarried and had a son, Jamie, then married again and gained two stepdaughters, Ellie and Hannah. Zoe saw her mum regularly until she was seven, but then didn't see her again until she was 18.

'My mum said that from the minute she was pregnant, I was always Daddy's girl and when they split up everybody thought it would be best for me to stay with my dad,' Zoe said in a previous interview.

'I saw my mum until I was about seven, but then she stayed away because she thought it would give me more stability. It was never a problem for me because I always knew she was there.'

'Dad was always really cool about me seeing Mum if I wanted to,' she said. 'But although she sent birthday cards and presents, I never responded. Mum was around, and I knew she was there. But she had her life, and I had mine.' 

When she was 18 and Julia 40, the mother and daughter were reconciled – with Zoe saying it was as if they had never been estranged.

'Her husband, Rick, rang me up and said it would be a really nice surprise for her if I got in touch. So I did and it was quite an emotional day,' she said.

Agreeing to attend Julia's 40th birthday party, Zoe recalled that on the day she 'could hardly breathe.' 

She told the Mirror in 1997. 'I felt faint but somehow managed to hold myself together. I suddenly panicked: "What if we hate each other?".'

It was her mum who answered the door — and all hesitation was gone.  'Mum hadn't changed a bit, except she didn't seem quite so tall,' Zoe recalled. 

The pair fell into each other's arms. 'We spent such a lovely first day together . . . lots of crying and girlie emotion.'

In the coming years, they would see each other all the time. Zoe once noted that if she needed any clarification of what she was doing, career-wise, she could consult her mum's cuttings collection as she kept all the press cuttings from Zoe's successes. 

Zoe held no resentment towards her mother's absence during her childhood. In an interview for The Independent in 2002 she said: 'She was young, didn't want to be a mum, so legged it. I can understand that.'

She also conceded that her youthful refusal to see her mum might have been down to the fear of being disappointed. 

'I had this fantasy about her being a brilliant person, which I don't think I wanted to ruin by meeting her. I remembered her in a suede jacket with fur trim, and suede boots, terribly glamorous.' 

Yet after their reconciliation Zoe and her mum made up for lost time, and had just spent Christmas in the Caribbean together when Julia got her cancer diagnosis. 

Seeing her mother lose her strength and energy so quickly to the disease she said: 'I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry. I really felt like she deserved longer.' 

After her death Zoe took to Instagram with a poignant tribute as she wrote: '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.' 

Following Julia's death, the star took time off from her BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show before later stepping down from her morning slot all together after her mother's death forced her to reconsider things. 

Speaking on her Persephonica podcast Dig It with Jo Whiley, Zoe said: 'I couldn't work. I was on the floor in the kitchen. I couldn't, I couldn't move.

'I had a proper emotional breakdown, you know, I haven't really talked about it actually. But it was, yeah, it was brutal.

'I had an amazing doctor who turned up at my door with coffee and bagels and said, "so, we need to get you some help", and he was wonderful.'

The mum of two admitted she found Julia's first birthday since her passing extremely difficult.

She explained: 'It's a year and a bit since we lost Mum, and I found her birthday this year, the toughest, the toughest, you know, a whole year later.

'That was brutal. It was a week of absolute weeping, I still get quite emotional sort of talking about mum, even now.

'But I think leaning on your loved ones is the best thing and also just not being afraid to weep. There's a lot of crying, there's a lot of pain that has to come out.'

Zoe's mother's death isn't the only tragedy she has faced after her previous partner Billy Yates took his own life in 2017, a year after Zoe's split from her husband Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook. 

The camera man sadly took his own life after a long battle with depression, with Zoe revealing she'd been 'in shock for two years' following the loss.

In an emotional interview on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in February 2020, Zoe spoke of Billy's death and the grief she endured after he took his own life.

Zoe said: 'I think it’s so isolating to be trapped in your mind like that, when you doubt yourself, you doubt everything you’ve ever known. You doubt your family love you. You doubt your friends care for you.'

But she insisted there is always help available and that 'it's important to share there is hope.'

Zoe remembered the man she loved and said 'he was so full of love and would help anyone in need', and insisted he should be 'remembered for his life, not his death.'

The star has confessed she still speaks to both her mum and Billy in a place on the South Downs that she can walk to from her home in Brighton. 

Zoe shares two children, Woody, 25, and Nelly, 16, with her ex husband Norman and the pair are still on good terms with the DJ even calling Zoe his 'soulmate'.

Announcing in December that she would be fully stepping down from BBC Radio 2, Zoe revealed it was time to leave her weekend show to be there more for her children as Nelly prepares to do her GCSEs. 

Her departure raised eyebrows that she could be clearing her calendar to takeover the Strictly hosting reigns from Tess and Claudia, a role she has shared she would love to do. 

In her personal life Zoe has also found love again after her mystery boyfriend was revealed as BAFTA-winning production designer Mathieu Weekes, 49.

Bundled up in a beanie hat and animal-print scarf, Zoe beamed as she walked arm in arm with Mathieu in her home town this week.

The Daily Mail revealed that Mathieu is an award-winning production designer who has worked on hit shows including The Traitors, I'm A Celeb, for which he won a 2021 BAFTA, Love Island and Squid Game: The Challenge.

It was whilst designing the set for 2023 talent show Mamma Mia! – I Have a Dream that Mathieu met Zoe, who presented the series filmed in Greece. Zoe's last public relationship with construction worker Michael Reed ended in 2023. 

The couple were first seen together at Glastonbury last June, a week after she first referred to 'my fella' while on Radio 2. 

Last month, Zoe opened up on her 'lover' and revealed what she finds 'sexy' about her partner - just weeks after confirming he had moved into her seaside home.

The star previously referred to Mathieu as 'The Lodger' during chats about him on her Dig It podcast which she co-hosts with pal Jo Whiley, where she hinted he can spend months away from the UK at a time. 

'Sniffing pits is sexy though,' she confessed on a recent episode, 'I've often had this thing, when I've been sort of dating someone, I love smelling their armpits.'

'I know it sounds weird, but if you love someone, you've got to love all their smells, not necessarily their bathroom smells. I draw a line at that. But there's something about armpit smells that I think are really sexy.'

She continued: 'My favourite thing to often do is sometimes, especially if I've not seen my lover for a while, is when they've got their arms around you, I'm like sniffing in the armpits, and I get a right old look. I'm like, I like that smell. It's a good smell.'