Zoe Ball has revealed she sees her 16-year-old daughter Nelly “less and less” as she has chosen to live more with her dad, Fatboy Slim.
Ball, who was widely tipped to become one of the new presenters of Strictly Come Dancing before announcing she’d not got the job, spoke about the shifting dynamics in her family during a podcast appearance.
Ball, who also shares 25-year-old Woody with the “Praise You” DJ, compared houses with Jo Whiley on the podcast they present together, Dig It. While Whiley said that her household is enormously busy, Ball revealed that she currently lives in relative silence.
“Mine’s so quiet, it’s like ugh!” Ball exclaimed. “It’s less and less because Nel is based more at her dad’s now. I think she’s got to that point of, ‘Ah, can I just be in one place?’.”
Ball added that her daughter’s revision notes are plastered over the walls of her dad’s home.
“It’s just nice not having to move from house to house, so she’s just spending more time there now,” she said, before confirming that it hasn’t made an enormous difference to their relationship – as her ex lives so nearby.
“It’s only around the corner and I can nip round at any time, which is great, and she can come here if she gets upset about anything like, ‘Mum, I need you’, but it’s less and less.”
Ball and Cook married in 1999 and announced their separation in 2018. Despite their split, the pair both live close to one another in Brighton.
Ball has been in the headlines recently as she announced that she was turned down for the Strictly presenting job, following the departures of Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly.
She said that she had screen-tested for the role, alongside comedian Josh Widdicombe, but only Widdicombe ended up getting the gig. He will present the new series of the show alongside Emma Willis and professional dancer Johannes Radebe.
“[Josh] is going to be so good,” Ball said on her Dig It! podcast. “Emma is just gorgeous and I love Johannes, so they are going to ace it.”
She added: “I didn’t get [the job], but it’s OK. I have worked through the seven stages of grief and rejection over the last couple of days. I was so chuffed to even be in the mix. There were some pretty amazing people who didn’t even make it into the mix.”
