Zoe Ball returns to BBC Radio 2 with new Saturday show from May

The broadcaster, who hosted the Radio 2 Breakfast Show from January 2019 until December 2023, will launch a new Saturday afternoon show from May 2025, airing between 1pm and 3pm.

Ball’s return was hinted at during her final breakfast show before Christmas, when she told listeners she would be “popping up here on Radio 2 for new adventures” in 2025.

The presenter took an extended leave of absence last summer, with the likes of Scott Mills and Gabby Roslin deputising for her.

Helen Thomas, head of BBC Radio 2, welcomed Ball’s return, saying: “Zoe is one of the UK’s most loved presenters, so I’m thrilled to announce that she has a new home on Radio 2 on Saturday lunchtimes, plus she’ll be hosting various specials for us throughout the year.”

When she first announced her decision to step down from weekday breakfast radio, Ball spoke about embracing a new routine and spending more time with family. “I’m excited to embrace my next chapter, including being a mum in the mornings and tuning into Radio 2 on the school run,” she said.

She also thanked her listeners for their support over the years: “I think the world of you, listeners... with whom I’ve shared some of life’s highs and lows; the good, the bad and the daft times.”

In addition to her new weekend show, Ball will also host two special broadcasts for BBC Radio 2. They are, Elaine Paige: 60 Years in Showbusiness and Bradford’s Big Brass Blowout, a weekend-long festival in the UK’s 2025 City of Culture.

Her Elaine Paige special will feature the theatre legend sharing exclusive stories behind her most famous songs and offering insights into life behind the red velvet curtain of London’s West End.

The show will be recorded at the London Palladium on April 25, 2025, with performances from the BBC Concert Orchestra and West End stars including Samantha Barks, Mazz Murray, Julian Ovenden, Charlie Stemp, and Summer Strallen.

In November, after Ball revealed she would be leaving, she announced she had a temporomandibular joint disorder, which affects the movement of the jaw, according to the NHS. Ball said she wakes up most days with “awful headaches” due to a health condition which causes pain in the jaw joint and surrounding muscles.

Ball was the BBC’s highest-paid on-air female presenter in 2023/24 with a salary between £950,000 and £954,999, ranking her second on the list of top-earning talent behind Gary Lineker, according to the corporation’s annual report published in July. She was previously married to Norman Cook, known as Fatboy Slim, and the pair have two children together, son Woody Fred Cook, born in 2000, and daughter Nelly May Lois Cook, who was born in 2010.