INTERVIEW

As she returns to our screens in a new Sunday night ITV show, Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball tells us about taking holidays with her dad Johnny, passing on her Nineties outfits to her teenage daughter, and how she still parties in Ibiza – but is tucked up in bed by 2am

by JULIA LLEWELLYN SMITH

ZoeBall was the party girl of the 1990s, the woman whose boozy antics – encapsulated in the photo of her in a cowboy hat on her wedding day, smoking a cigarette and clutching a bottle of Jack Daniels – inspired the word ‘ladette’.

Yet, in the intervening 25 years, she’s had a well-documented stint in rehab and these days she favours a cup of chamomile tea and Gardeners’ World over a night out. Which is all very well, but surely we all need a knees-up every now and again?

So I’m cheered to hear that Zoe, who turns 53 this month, has just returned from a holiday in Ibiza, where – despite not touching booze – she spent most nights clubbing at Pikes, the party hotel where Wham! filmed their Club Tropicana video.

‘I was with my friends, 30 years on from when we were first there,’ Zoe says, with her trademark sunny smile. ‘I drove, I was in bed by 2am, but we were there dancing. The average age in there was about 50 and it was brilliant. In the past it was always a thing – I’d just stay too long. Now I think, “Oh, actually now’s a good time to go home”.

‘I’ve learned the art of the French exit,’ she continues, referring to slipping out of a party without saying goodbye to anyone. After all, when she’s working, hosting BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show – her berth for nearly five years now – she has to be up at 4am if she’s staying at her home in East Sussex, or 5.30am if she’s spent the night at her London bolthole. ‘It’s certainly a little limiting, but that’s not been a bad thing for me,’ she says. ‘I went to see Frankie Bridge in [the West End play] 2:22 A Ghost Story the other day and it finishes about 9.30pm. I was like, “Perfect, I’ll be in bed at ten!”.’