Zoe Ball swaps £2.5m beach party pad...
...for the quiet life in £1m cottage
SHE used to be a glamorous fixture on the showbiz party circuit. But these days it seems Zoe Ball prefers curling up in her cottage to a night on the town.
She has swapped her £2.5million beachfront mansion in Brighton for a £970,000 period property in a quiet village.
Marking a dramatic shift in lifestyle, the BBC presenter has waved goodbye to a private beach and celebrity neighbours and is relishing village life – and free deliveries of locally sourced eggs.
Miss Ball, 47, whose boyfriend Billy Yates took his own life last year, had been living two doors from her ex-husband Norman Cook, in a villa they bought in 2012. They recently sold the property and she has found herself a ‘magnificent’ four-bedroom cottage in Ditchling, Sussex.
The eighteenth-century property boasts a spacious split-level kitchen and studio space, while outside there is a stunning walled courtyard garden and raised lawn. Miss Ball said on social media that her move represented a ‘new adventure’. She revealed her excitement at moving house on her Radio 2 show last weekend, saying: ‘I don’t know if any of them are listening, but thank you to my new neighbours.
‘I’ve just moved over the Downs a little bit into a lovely village and I have been inundated with cards and flowers from people, which is so lovely. I have got a card from the vicar of Ditchling. I live right next to the church, and the bells are amazing. Is it hard to be a bell-ringer? I know I have just taken up cycling, and maybe I should get through that first, but I was thinking it would be quite good fun to be a bell-ringer.’
A few days ago, she posted on Instagram: ‘Village life is sweet as. Thanks Mac Farm for the fresh eggs left on my doorstep. What an eggscellent surprise.’
Miss Ball and Cook, a DJ who goes by the stage name Fatboy Slim, were married for 18 years before they split in 2016. They owned three properties on Western Esplanade, dubbed ‘Millionaire’s Row’ for its celebrity residents over the years, including Adele, Heather Mills and David Walliams.
Cook has been living just a stone’s throw away in a larger mansion, meaning their two children could easily see both parents.
Miss Ball rose to fame in the 1990s hosting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and was known for her ‘ladette’ lifestyle. She went on to present several shows for the BBC, including Top Of The Pops and the Strictly spin off It Takes Two. Yesterday her representatives were unavailable for comment.