A new era began at BBC Radio 2 on Monday as Sara Cox took over the station's coveted Breakfast Show, following the announcement in April that she would replace Scott Mills.
The 51-year-old broadcaster, who has presented Radio 2's popular teatime programme since 2019, said at the time she was “ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed” to helm the show.
“It's been a dream to host the Breakfast Show since I joined Radio 2 and it feels like a bit of a full circle for me,” she said.
“I've had the most glorious seven years of my career on Teatime so thank you to my brilliant Teatime listeners who hopefully will join me at Breakfast for excellent music and all my usual nonsense plus some superstar guests.
“I honestly can't wait to wake the nation up with the biggest, most fun breakfast show ever.”
Looking back on her career, Cox first found fame as a model before moving into television with Channel 4's The Girlie Show, later becoming a familiar face on MTV and The Big Breakfast in the late 1990s.
She has since become one of the BBC's best-known presenters, fronting programmes including The Great Pottery Throw Down and raising more than £11.5 million for Children in Need through her Great Northern Marathon Challenge.
Away from broadcasting, Cox lives in London with her husband, advertising executive Ben Cyzer, and their family.
The couple, who married in 2012 after meeting at Glastonbury eight years earlier, have two children together.
Speaking last year, Cox reflected on the difficult relationship she was in when she first moved to London.
"I was in a very unhappy relationship when I first moved to London," she told The Times. "I was with this person who turned out to be horrible and he stole from me. I felt emotionally stranded there. Then I binned him off and the MTV and Big Breakfast years began."
Cox was previously married to DJ Jon Carter.
The pair wed in 2001, welcomed daughter Lola together and divorced four years later.
After finding love with Cyzer, the presenter previously described herself as “very happy and smug and pleased and loved”, praising her husband as “brilliant”, “thoughtful and caring”.
Last year, she marked 20 years since they first met with a romantic trip to Italy, writing on Instagram: “20 years since we met at Glastonbury. 12 years married.”
Cox was announced as the new host in April and replaces former presenter Scott Mills who was sacked by the BBC shortly before it emerged that the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into the 53-year-old in 2016 over allegations of serious sexual offences involving a boy aged under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
Cox will take over from Gary Davies, who has been filling in as breakfast show host since Mills was taken off air.
Asked about her predecessor Mills, she said: “I know no more than you do about the whole thing.”
Cox’s breakfast programme will include a new format which will bring listeners’ favourite bits from her teatime show.
Her first guest will be Hollywood actor Tom Hanks.
The Bolton-born DJ previously described the role as a “dream” and said she was “ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed”.
