Zoe Ball's son Woody said he has been spending more time with his mum recently as she has always been by his side when he has gone through tough times.
The 23-year-old internet personality said he has "stepped up" to support his mum, who has been absent from the BBC Radio 2 show for six weeks. Zoe, who is the BBC's highest paid woman with a salary of £950,000, is rumoured to be returning to the show on Monday.
The BBC only said the much-loved radio presenter will be back "this month" but she hasn't addressed her return date herself, as a source from her team told reporters: "This is all very tricky." While the reason for Zoe's absence over the past few weeks hasn't been shared publicly, her son seems to have hinted that she has been going through some "tough times".
READ MORE: What Zoe Ball's Radio 2 colleagues really make of her absence from breakfast show
He told Mail Online: "My mum and I like to keep our private lives to ourselves but I will say I have stepped up and spent a lot more time with her recently as she has always been there when I've had tough times." He added: "I'm glad to see her smiling."
Zoe's absence has no doubt sparked an outpouring of concern at Radio 2, where she has been a regular voice since 2006. One of the presenter's colleagues told the Daily Mail that Zoe is one of the hardest working presenters at the station, on air five days a week from 6.30am to 9.30am. They said: "Zoe's show is like a television show, really. Guests still actually go into the studio rather than have a quick chat on Zoom so she has to be fully present and look the part.
"She is up so early and she has a long journey in. She is up at 3am, and travels into London. You compare that to some of the other BBC employees, they have a couple of shows each week and go home again. We have been very concerned about her and hope that she is OK."
The presenter took over the morning programme in 2019 from Chris Evans, who left the BBC Radio 2 breakfast slot after eight years, and went to Virgin Radio. At the time, she was the first female host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in 1998, a post she held until 2000.
She also co-hosted the BBC's Saturday morning children’s magazine Live & Kicking alongside Jamie Theakston for three years from 1996. Other projects she has presented include the BBC spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, and ITV's reality competition show Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream.
It comes as it emerged that Zoe has sold her country home four years after buying it for £2million. It is believed she moved to a townhouse between Brighton and Hove, near her ex-husband DJ Norman Cook - the father of her two children - from whom she separated in 2016 and divorced in 2020. Some sources close to the much-loved presenters have suggested that the change represents a "new start" for the radio host, who split from her partner Michael Reed last year after more than five years together.
A source with knowledge of her new home told Mail Online: "Zoe obviously got fed up with life in the country and wanted to move to somewhere a bit more lively." They also claimed that she has been ordering new furniture to decorate her new pad, saying: "She has become really engrossed in making her house just as she wants it and has been happily ordering furniture and buying bits and bobs to make it perfect."
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