Zoe Ball has said her move to Greatest Hits Radio comes after a hard break from Radio 2’s Breakfast Show in November 2024. She had spent six years in the slot before deciding it was the right time to leave, and she is now set to front Zoe Ball in the Afternoon from Monday 7 September.
Zoe Ball and Greatest Hits Radio
“Leaving the breakfast show was hard because I loved it, but it just felt like the right time,” she said. That line does more work than a neat goodbye: it frames this as a career shift shaped by timing rather than a clean handover, and it tells listeners to expect a new schedule rather than a pause in her radio work.
Ball has now landed a new project with Greatest Hits Radio, where she will take over the afternoon show. For the station, the move puts a recognisable name into a daytime slot that needs continuity and personality, not just familiarity. For Ball, it creates a different kind of pace from the breakfast slot she left behind.
April 2024 changed the decision
Ball tied the exit to events in April 2024, when her mother died after becoming sick. She said, “When Mum got sick, it was such a shock because she felt very young for her years. She was 75 and was so active, so much fun and lived a busy, healthy life.”
She added: “But we lost her in 12 weeks. It took the wind out of all of us. There are just these curveballs in life that really make you stop, think 'okay, what's important?' and [put] everything into perspective. I probably would have stayed longer but you never know where life is going.” That gives the departure a clear private logic: the move was not about restlessness, but about recalibration after a compressed and difficult period.
May 2025 to September
Ball returned to Radio 2 in May 2025 for a new show before leaving again in December 2025. The latest move now shifts her from the Radio 2 breakfast slot to an afternoon role at Greatest Hits Radio, which changes the shape of her day and the part of the audience she reaches.
She has also continued to host Dig It with Jo Whiley, which keeps her in front of listeners even as her main broadcast home changes. The practical question now is the simplest one: how much of the old Ball will follow her into the new afternoon show, and how much will be built around the different demands of a later slot.
Zoe Ball in the Afternoon begins on Monday 7 September, and the test is not whether she can fill the time — it is whether Greatest Hits Radio uses her to make afternoons feel as essential as breakfast already did.
