Zoe Ball left her job for her daughter: but she's never home.

Zoe Ball: Decision to leave BBC Radio 2

According to The Sun: Zoe Ball admitted that she left her job at BBC Radio 2, where her annual salary was £950,000, to spend more time with her daughter Nelly. However, it turned out that her daughter is often not home.

However, Zoe acknowledged that she couldn't make the most of her free time as she had planned.

"I left my job because she is about to take her GCSEs, but she is never home. She's out with friends. I’m like: 'I left my job for you.'"

Zoe, who raises Nelly, 15, and son Woody, 24, with her ex-husband Norman Cook, shared her experiences during an appearance on the podcast 'Parenting Hell' with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe.

She also added:

"I don't know what I did this for?"

"Yes, I thought about it, as I went through something similar with Woody, but then I had the joy of having Nelly still around. Now I don’t know."

"For girls at 15, it’s alcohol and boys. It’s a real nightmare. It’s absolutely crazy."

Before her departure, Zoe remarked:

"After six wonderful years on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, it was time for me to step back from such early mornings and focus on family."

Now she has returned to BBC Radio 2 with 'The Zoe Ball Show', which airs every Saturday.

Listener periods and changes at the radio

However, between April and June 2025, the station lost half a million listeners compared to the previous three months.

Scott Mills took over hosting the show in January 2025.

From January to March 2025, 13.11 million listeners tuned into the station overall. However, during the last verified period, this number dropped to 12.62 million.

As for the Breakfast Show, it recorded 6.45 million average listeners per week from January to March. However, between April and June, this figure fell to 6.22 million.

These changes in audience listening underline the challenges faced by radio in the modern media landscape, where competition for listeners' attention is becoming increasingly fierce. Zoe Ball's return to the airwaves with her new project may become an interesting experiment for rekindling interest in the show and attracting both old and new listeners.