Stars rally to heartbroken Zoe Ball as lover Billy Yates found dead
COLLEAGUES reached out to ‘devastated’ Zoe Ball after her boyfriend Billy Yates was found dead at his flat.
Kate Thornton paid tribute as she stepped in to present Zoe’s Radio 2 show on Saturday. ‘Before we get started can I just say from everyone on the show and here at Radio 2 our thoughts are with Billy, his family, and friends and of course with you Zoe,’ she said. ‘We are sending you the biggest of hugs.’
The Strictly — It Takes Two presenter will have at least a week off air after police were called to Yates’s flat in Putney, south-west London, at 18.40 on Thursday. The 40-year-old cameraman’s death was not ‘suspicious,’ they said.
Ball, 46, posted a pink flower captioned ‘My sweet love’ after news of his death and retweeted a Samaritans’ message, which said: ‘If it really doesn’t feel like the force is with you today, we’re here and ready to listen. Talk To Us.’ Yates’s sister Katharine McKee wrote on Facebook: ‘Absolutely heartbroken that my wonderful brother has gone.’ His other sister, Geraldine Isherwood, wrote: ‘We are devastated.’
A friend of Zoe’s said: ‘Billy had made her happy again. She is in total shock.’ They met shortly after she split from Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook after 18 years of marriage last September.
Author: Andrei Harmsworth
