Proud Woody Cook says his mum an dad have totally changed in the past five years after ditching their wild nights out. Zoe Ball and Norman Cook prefer the quiet life these days and much prefer getting their hands dirty in the garden to hitting the town. Radio presenter Zoe, 54, stepped down from her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in December to 'focus on her family'. Now her 24-year-old lad has revealed that his famous mum has been doing 'lots of puzzles' and has been getting back into gardening since quitting her job at the BBC. He also says the pair of them been working in a cafe to put their spare time to good use and their son is loving his parents' new look.
Speaking about their wholesome lifestyle, he confirmed they've been putting in the hours at Fatboy Slimowns the Big Beach Cafe in Hove, Brighton, and revealed his dad even wears a name badge reading: "Norm." Woody said: "In the last five years, it's been funny watching my parents take up gardening both of them. "These crazy party people I grew up with are now gardening, making puzzles and working in the local café. It's very funny to see that transitional period, just as I'm kind of leaving the nest and now at the start of something big for me in music," he told MailOnline.
Much-loved Zoe fronted her final breakfast show for the station back in December after six years in the role. She had announced her departure weeks prior after an extended absence over the summer, which came following the death of Zoe's late mother Julia Peckham in April last year. It's now been announced that the flagship show saw an increase in its audience shortly before her final broadcast. An average of 6.8 million listeners tuned in to her show each week across the final quarter of last year, according to research body Rajar. This is up 9 percent on the previous three months and is the highest figure for the show since the start of 2023.
Zoe - who teased that she will still remain in the Radio 2 "family" - was absent from the airwaves for part of the summer of 2024. She returned briefly on on August 8 before coming back full-time from September 23. Scott Mills, 51, has since taken over as host from Zoe on the Breakfast Show, making his debut on January 27. Radio 4's audience slipped to 9.0 million in October-December 2024, down 7 percent on the previous three months but a fall of only 1% on the equivalent period in 2023. PA adds that Rajar's findings also show, for example, that Greg James' breakfast show on BBC Radio 1 is up 4 percent year-on-year from 3.9 million to 4.1 million; no comparable figures for the previous quarter are available, because of a change in the programme's transmission time.
