Published: 5:29:00 PM
They were the darlings of the music industry who had fame, fortune and a beautiful family.
But Zoe Ball and her husband DJ Norman Cook could not keep all their turntable plates spinning and the cool poster couple of the 90s announced their 18 year marriage was over on Twitter quoting lyrics from a Lionel Richie ballad: “We have come to the end of our rainbow”.
And yet while the couple, who are worth around £20million, look set for a divorce, for now at least, they are vowing to do all they can to prevent an acrimonious split like fellow showbiz couples, Brangelina and Johnny Depp and Amber Heard who have both endured ugly fights and lurid accusations in the heat of their break-ups.
And they are determined not to end up in a bitter custody fight over their two children, son Woody, 16, and six-year-old daughter Nelly.
A source close to the couple told the Mirror: “Zoe and Norman still have absolute respect for one another and are adamant they will not let this descend into a messy showbiz split.
“They are keeping things absolute amicable, because they’re still great friends and they are determined to remain that way.”
So much so that they both attended his brother Simon’s wedding at the weekend with their children. And Zoe, 45, and Norman, 53, will continue to live between the three adjoining multimillion pound art deco properties they own on the beachfront in Hove, East Sussex.
The pair who met in a haze of house music and hard partying in the early 90s have endured incredibly tough times throughout their relationship including booze problems, stints in rehab, a three month split after Zoe had an affair and recent dancefloor snog.
So the questions is why after surviving all that, have they ended up in two separate homes?
The pal said: “Zoe and Norman haven’t been working for a long time – they knew their relationship was coming to an end, so they’ve had a lot of time to adjust to living separate lives.
"They were still officially together at the start of the summer, and they really tried to make it work, but it was very much a mutual decision to call it a day. “
Both have struggled with their addictions in the past – that makes the relationship a very complicated one, but they are both adults and both want the most amicable split possible.
“There will be no messy court battles – this will be one of the nicest celebrity separations ever. In the meantime, both of them have been trying to focus on their work to help get through the difficult time.”
A look back at the pressures on their marriage seems to suggest the pair who loved “having it large” struggled to settle down.
When they met in 1998, Zoe reigned as queen of the ladettes and was the hard-partying, highly-paid presenter of Radio 1’s Breakfast show.
Norman, aka Fatboy Slim, was one of the highest paid superstar DJs in the world who topped the charts with floor-fillers and played to adoring crowds of 350,000 on Rio de Janeiro beach.
They were a match made in hedonistic heaven and it seems fitting that they met in Ibiza when Zoe was hosting the breakfast show from the party island.
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