MY SWEET LOVE
Grief-stricken Zoe Ball’s poignant tribute to her cameraman boyfriend found dead at home aged 40
THIS was supposed to be Zoe Ball’s ‘year of discovery’ – a carefree epic of fun, dating, snogging and, as she put it, ‘more sex’ to help her rebuild and regroup after the trauma of her split from her 18-year marriage to Norman Cook, aka the superstar DJ Fatboy Slim.
The man helping her pick up the pieces and move on was a 40-year-old cameraman called Billy yates who was introduced to the 46-year-old Radio 2 DJ by Claudia Winkleman. Billy had an enormous pink rose tattooed on his left bicep, a great sense of humour, and a witty turn of phrase.
He ran his own company, Billy yates Media, and jokingly described himself on his Twitter page as an ‘award-winning pickled egg scoffer, booze quaffin’, part-time lady sniffing, solver of life’s everyday problems’. Zoe was smitten.
But at 6.40pm on Thursday, his body was found by police called to his second floor flat in Putney, South West london. The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that his death is not being treated as suspicious.
Zoe, of course, has been left reeling. As a friend put it yesterday: ‘She is overcome with grief. She is utterly devastated.
‘Billy had made her happy again after the most horrendous year when her marriage broke down. This was completely out of the blue. She had no feeling that this was coming and is in total shock.’
yesterday, she posted a picture of a pink flower to instagram with the caption ‘My sweet love x’ and shared a message on Twitter from suicide prevention charity Samaritans which read: ‘if it really doesn’t feel like the force is with you today, we’re here and ready to listen.’
Neighbours talked of ‘the nicest, nicest guy’ last night and one man left a small bunch of flowers at the front door of his flat, as it was emerging that Billy’s life was perhaps not as carefree as it seemed.
One neighbour talked yesterday of having seen him in tears. The owner of a nearby corner shop said: ‘He was a very nice guy, he was in here most days, always smiling and chatty – he never seemed depressed.’
Hours before his death, Billy had been chatting happily with a neighbour.
‘He popped into the shop downstairs and bought a fizzy drink at around midday. We chatted a bit and laughed a bit. He seemed like his normal cheerful and happy self,’ the father of one said.
But the police and ambulance service arrived at his second floor flat after the alarm was raised by a friend. Whatever Billy’s emotional wellbeing, he was clearly deeply loved by his family and friends, as well as his new girlfriend.
Many have posted heartfelt tributes on social media.
Billy and Zoe hit it off from the moment they properly met. (They had actually known each other slightly for some time – back in May 2015, Billy, was commenting on some old Hello! photoshoot pictures from November 1998 that Zoe had posted on Facebook – but they only got together in late 2016.)
it helped that Billy, a cameraman who grew up with two older sisters in a modest semi-detached house in Darwen, lancashire, had worked on everything from BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow to iTV’s The Xtra Factor.
He was in the business, aware of the pressures of life in the spotlight and took Zoe’s public profile in his stride. Their relationship went public in February when photographs were published of them in the street near the second-floor flat in Putney where his body was found – and where Zoe regularly stayed over. But they didn’t care.
They were far too loved up to bother about cameras and were forever snapped smooching, laughing, whispering in each other’s ears and kissing over and over – on one occasion in the street near Kensington Palace, West london, where, according to one onlooker, they looked like ‘a new couple who are besotted with each other’.
Zoe had a new glow, a new joy and a new man with whom to celebrate her recent appointment as co-presenter, with Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, of the The Big Family Cooking Showdown on BBC2 this autumn. At a recent event for comedian Sarah Millican’s Standard issue magazine, Zoe was her old jokey self, revealing: ‘i am menopausal. i am hot and hairy.
‘it is like my last hoorah. is it going to get better? Do i do HRT or do i have the funny tea? This is the quandary.’
She added: ‘Have more sex? i have just left my marriage. OK that is a good tip. HRT and more sex, i will take that.’
Even Billy’s ex-partner, Molly Johnson, seemed thrilled for them, saying: ‘it’s all lovely and fabulous. i hope they’re very happy. He is a dear, dear friend, my whole family just adore him.
‘All that matters to us is that he’s happy. He’s a brilliant man, and i’m keeping my fingers crossed for him. i wish the very best for him.’
Zoe’s father, former TV personality Johnny Ball, 78, said at the time: ‘We are very happy that she is finding a new lease of life. She is very happy at the moment and that is lovely.’
it must have seemed wonderfully light relief after years of battling – and failing – to breathe life back into her marriage. She and Norman had been the cool couple of the late 90s. She, the original ladette – loud, lairy, fun; forever smoking and swigging straight from a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
HE was a superstar DJ who played to crowds of hundreds of thousands on the beach at Rio de Janeiro as he swigged vodka. They nearly split in 2003 when Zoe admitted an affair with one of her husband’s close friends, DJ Dan Peppe.
Zoe admitted at the time that she was out of control, saying: ‘i wasn’t happy.
‘And what i’ve always done in my past when life hit a rocky patch was just run from trouble into the next relationship.’
Norman forgave her but it wasn’t until 2009 that Zoe put her party days behind her. They both gave up drinking and in 2010, daughter Nelly, now seven, was born.
While Norm stayed off the booze, Zoe did not. She loves to party and in December 2015 was back in the headlines when she was snapped snogging boy band member Tay Tay Starhz, then 22, of pop group Franklin lake, at a Strictly Come Dancing Christmas party.
Still their marriage limped on until last August, when, amid reports that Zoe was tired of Norman’s teetotal lifestyle, they announced their separation after 18 years.
Having found happiness after so many years of turbulence, it goes without saying that Zoe will be in freefall right now.
yesterday it was confirmed that Kate Thornton will be filling in for her by presenting her Radio 2 show this afternoon, and Zoe’s agent confirmed that her management were helping her cope with the ‘crisis’.
How sad for both of them that a love that had finally brought her so much joy has come to such a tragic end.
For confidential advice, call the Samaritans on 116 123, visit a local Samaritans branch or go to www.samaritans.org