Zoe Ball has swapped her Brighton party pad for a quiet cottage in Sussex.

Zoe Ball

Zoe Ball

The 47-year-old broadcaster - who endured heartbreak after the suicide of her boyfriend Billy Yates last year - recently sold her £2.5million mansion and bought a £970,000 four-bedroom cottage in a quiet village.

Speaking on her BBC Radio 2 show, Zoe said: "I don't know if any of them are listening, but thank you to my new neighbours.

"I've just moved over the Downs a little bit into a lovely village and I have been inundated with cards and flowers from people, which is so lovely. I have got a card from the vicar of Ditchling.

"I live right next to the church, and the bells are amazing. Is it hard to be a bell-ringer? I know I have just taken up cycling, and maybe I should get through that first, but I was thinking it would be quite good fun to be a bell-ringer."

Meanwhile, Zoe recently found happiness again with 47-year-old father of two and construction firm boss Michael Reed.

A source said: "She deserves some happiness.

"It is great to see Zoe with a spring in her step - smiling and enjoying life again. She has had a tough time of it this year so deserves some happiness.

"It is early days with Michael but Zoe seems quite taken with him. She left her girlfriends to go and meet him so that shows how keen she is.

"Michael is a charismatic guy and very handsome, so it is not hard to see the attraction.

"He is also not in showbiz, so hopefully that might make any relationship easier."

Zoe was previously married to Norman Cook, the father of her children Woody, 17, and Nelly May, seven, for 18 years.


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