Zoe Ball says she felt pressure to wear skimpy clothes when starting as a presenter in the 90s
Zoe Ball says she was pressured to wear skimpy outfits when she first started her career as a presenter.
The 54-year-old star’s early presenting jobs included Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast in and BBC's Live & Kicking and admitted that in her early days in the media it “wasn't an option” to say no to “uncomfortable” requests during photoshoots or at work.
She told The Times: “It’s only years later you look back and think, goodness me. It was actually Sophie Ellis-Bextor [in her memoir] that undid me, reading some of the stuff she went through and how what she could see of women in the media was Sara [Cox] and I.
“I remember going to a shoot and they’d be like, ‘Straddle a chair’. There’d be these racks of tiny clothes, so it was quite uncomfortable, but it was, like, I’ve got to do it. There was no saying, ‘I don’t think she wants to do it,’ you’re conditioned to think, that’s just how it is. But now I’m thinking about my daughter; if someone asked her to do that or said something about her, I would be, like …”
Meanwhile, Zoe – who was one of the BBC's highest paid presenters before quitting her Radio 2 breakfast show last year in order to focus on her 15-year-old daughter Nelly – recently admitted she was questioning her decision as Nelly was never at home.
Zoe – who also has 24-year-old son Woody with her ex-husband, 62-year-old DJ Fatboy Slim -told comedians Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe on their Parenting Hell podcast: "I gave up work because she's going to do her GCSEs, but she's never here, she's out with her mates.
"I'm like, 'I've given up work for you! What did I give up for?' Yeah, I have thought about it because I've been through this a bit with Woody, but I had the joy of having Nelly still around."
Zoe gave up her £950,000-a-year salary from her Radio 2 Breakfast Show job - following her mum Julia's death from cancer in 2024 - so she could support Nelly with her exams, as well as help her navigate the difficulties of being a teenager.
The broadcaster - who was replaced by DJ Scott Mills, 51, on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show - added: "It's only since giving up the breakfast show that I now do the school run in the morning, and I love it. She's got GCSEs this year, but that was part of giving up the breakfast show. I was like, I really want to be there for her because it's going to be a tough year. And also for girls, 15, is booze and boys. It's a nightmare. It's an absolute minefield."