Zoe Ball splits from husband Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook after 18 years together

SUPERSTAR DJ Norman Cook’s 18-year relationship with Zoe Ball has ended after she allegedly told him he was “boring”.

Zoe Ball and Norman Cook have ended their 18-year marriage. Picture: Rex Features/Splash News

ZOE Ball and her DJ husband Norman Cook have called it quits after 18 years together.

The It Takes Two host, 45, left the house she shared with Norman — aka superstar DJ Fatboy Slim, 53 — their son, 16, and daughter, six, The Sun reports.

Ball allegedly told the shattered DJ she wanted to pursue a relationship with her toyboy lover, aged in his twenties, The Sun claims.

“Zoe told heartbroken Norman he was boring,” a pal said.

Friends of the couple say teetotal Cook is now fighting to hold the family together after radio presenter Ball left the marriage two weeks ago.

A pal told The Sun that Cook has rearranged work commitments to care for their son Woody and daughter Nelly May.

Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, and his wife Zoe Ball have called it quits. Picture: Stephen Lawrence/SNAP UK/SPLASH

Yesterday, the pair announced “with great sadness” that they were separating after 18 years.

They tweeted: “After many exciting adventures we have come to the end of our rainbow. We’re still great friends and will continue to support each other and raise our beautiful children together living next door but one.”

Despite the message’s amicable tone, friends of the couple — who last year bought three houses on the same plush seafront strip in Hove, East Sussex — say Cook is devastated by her leaving.

One revealed last night: “Zoe told heartbroken Norman that he was boring and said that she just wanted to drink and have sex with a new younger lover.”

pic.twitter.com/wK2aRHty4O

— Fatboy Slim (@FatboySlim) September 24, 2016

The source added: “Zoe packed her bags and left. They have been arguing a lot recently and she decided she’d had enough.

“All the arguments have been over the same issue — Zoe wants to go out and have fun, and Norman would rather stay at home. “His sobriety was incredibly hard-won and he doesn’t want to compromise it.

“Zoe understands that, but she is in a very different place. She doesn’t want to be sat on the sofa of an evening having a cup of tea. Despite being previously teetotal, she loves a party and will get stuck into a night out.”

Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, DJs at Future Music Festival. Picture: Supplied

It is thought trouble has been brewing since August, when the couple — who split briefly in 2003 — travelled to Ibiza where Cook plays. They ended that trip early after a having a big fight.

The pal said: “There was a row about her drinking and it all came out. Zoe is supposed to be dry but she has been going out drinking more and more with girlfriends.

“In their most heated rows she has called him boring and said she wants more from her life. And it was after one of those rows that she left. Despite all the fighting, the decision came as a bolt out of the blue for Norman.

“He adores Zoe and would never ever choose to be without her. He is trying to hold it together for the children, but he is distraught. And the news that Zoe seems to have been confiding in a much younger male pal about their breakup has added salt to his wounds. This is a very painful time for him.”

Zoe Ball and Norman Cook wed at Babington House, Somerset in 1999. Picture: Supplied

Sources said Cook, who quit booze after admitting he was an alcoholic in 2009, struggled to accept Ball’s decision to start partying again following her own six-year spell off drink.

One said: “It isn’t a lifestyle Norman wants any more. He understands Zoe does, and he doesn’t want to stop her having fun. But when she goes to extremes, it’s hard for him to deal with.”

Only in February, Ball said the couple had a “good understanding of each other” and spoke of their plans to open a “pub come post-office come pet shop” when they eventually retired.

She was this week in rehearsals in London for the Strictly spin-off show, while Cook remained at their family home in Brighton.

The couple put on a united front yesterday at Cook’s brother’s wedding in Basingstoke.

The pal said: “Zoe and Norman are still talking, but the effort seems to be very much on his side. At the moment, she is convinced the split will be permanent. But they have reunited before, so it isn’t impossible.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun.

Originally published as Zoe Ball splits from husband Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook after 18 years together