Some photos that Zoe Ball posted in April got everyone talking. These were before and after photos of her stomach. Not from some dodgy diet pill or a month at the gym. From a massage. One massage that cost her 120 quid.
I’ll be honest, I rolled my eyes a little at first. Celebrities put that kind of stuff up all the time, right? Always selling something or promoting some treatment that probably doesn’t work for normal people. But I did find out what she’d had done, and it wasn’t some crazy celebrity thing at all.
The Treatment She Had
Lymphatic drainage massage. The treatment sounds fancy, but it’s been around for many years. So your lymphatic system is supposed to drain excess fluid out of your body. If the system gets lazy, it makes you bloat up like a balloon. The massage basically gives it a kick up the backside to get moving again.
Zoe’s photos showed proper results. Her stomach looked flatter and less puffy. And she was entirely straight on what she had done and where she had gone. No filters, no weird angles, just actual before and after pictures from the same day.
The Zoe Ball body transformation wasn’t some massive weight loss thing. She didn’t suddenly drop two dress sizes. Her stomach just looked less bloated. For women her age dealing with menopause, that’s actually a bigger deal than you’d think.
Why She Tried It
How old is Zoe Ball? She’s 54. Menopause age. Menopause can cause severe bloating. Your hormones go haywire, and your body suddenly holds water in places it never would before, while nothing that used to work seems to do the trick anymore.
She’s also been dealing with TMJ, which is a jaw problem that gives you constant headaches from all of the tension and clenching. She wakes up with a headache on most days. Imagine trying to do a breakfast radio show while feeling like that every morning.
Actually, she doesn’t do the breakfast show anymore. She left Radio 2’s breakfast slot in December 2024 after nearly six years. Her mum died from cancer in April last year, and I think that changed her priorities quite a bit.
She’s got a new Saturday show now, 1-3pm, which started in May. Her new show, which runs from 1 to 3pm, offers much more civilised hours.
Her Past Struggles
Look, Zoe’s been through it. Did Zoe Ball lose a partner? Yeah, Billy Yates. What happened to Zoe Ball’s partner? He took his own life in 2017. Absolutely devastating. They’d been together for years.
What was Zoe Ball addicted to? She’s talked openly about cocaine and alcohol problems in the late 90s and early 2000s. Got sober in 2002. That’s over twenty years clean now, which is brilliant, but addiction doesn’t just disappear. It’s something you manage forever.
Who is Zoe Ball’s partner now? She’s single. She and Michael Reed broke up in 2023 after about five years together. She was then seen with a mystery bloke in June this year, at Glastonbury, but she has yet to make anything official. Maybe wise to keep it all private after everything she’s been through.
So when she’s posting about a massage that helped with menopause bloating, it’s not coming from someone who’s had an easy ride. She’s dealt with addiction, grief, chronic pain, and now menopause on top of everything else.
Why The Photos Matter
Here’s what I liked about the whole thing. She wasn’t pretending the massage fixed her life. She wasn’t saying it would work for everyone. She just showed what happened to her stomach after one treatment.
Most celebrity transformation posts are rubbish. Heavily filtered, shot from flattering angles, and posted weeks apart so you can’t tell what actually changed. Zoe’s were taken the same day, with the same lighting and in the same pose. Honest.
The Zoe Ball body transformation pictures got attention because they were believable. She didn’t suddenly have abs. She just looked less uncomfortable. Less puffy. More like herself.
That’s what most women actually want, isn’t it? Not to look like someone else entirely, but to feel comfortable in their own skin again. Menopause makes you feel like your body’s been replaced overnight. Anything that helps you feel normal again is worth having.
The Cost
120 quid isn’t cheap. But it’s not completely mental either. It’s less than some haircuts. Less than a nice meal out with your partner. If it actually works and makes you feel better, that’s decent value.
I’m not saying everyone should rush out and book one. What worked for Zoe might do sod all for you. Bodies are different. Menopause affects everyone differently. But at least it’s not some thousand-pound treatment that only rich people can afford.
What She’s Doing Now
Since leaving the breakfast show, Zoe’s dad, Johnny Ball, told Saga Magazine she’s doing much better. She’d had “various problems,” but she’s thriving now with the reduced workload.
Getting up at 4am every morning for six years would knacker anyone, let alone someone dealing with health problems and grief.
Her new Saturday show is still on Radio 2, so she’s not disappeared or anything. Just working more sensible hours. Spending more time with her family. Sorting out her health. All perfectly reasonable things to do when you’re 54 and you’ve been burning the candle at both ends for decades.
The Bigger Picture
The massage helped with one symptom. That’s it. It didn’t cure her TMJ. It didn’t bring her mum back. It didn’t solve her work stress. It just reduced some bloating for a bit.
But sometimes that’s enough, isn’t it? When you’re dealing with multiple problems, getting relief from even one of them feels like a win. Chronic bloating is uncomfortable and frustrating. If a massage sorts it out for a few weeks, brilliant. Book another one.
I think that’s why her post resonated with so many women. She wasn’t pretending to have all the answers. She wasn’t selling some miracle cure. She just said, “This helped me with this specific thing,” and she showed the results.
Why I’m Not Sceptical
Usually, when celebrities post transformation pictures, I assume they’re flogging something. Sponsored content, paid partnership, whatever. But Zoe just tagged the practitioner and posted the photos. No affiliate links. No discount codes. Just “I tried this and it worked.”
That’s refreshingly honest in a world where every Instagram post seems to come with a promo code. She wasn’t trying to make money from it. She was just sharing something that helped her.
And for women going through menopause, seeing someone high-profile talk honestly about bloating and trying treatments is actually quite helpful. Menopause gets talked about more now than it used to, but there’s still a lot of secrecy and shame around it.
Zoe posting those pictures with no embarrassment or hedging helps normalise the whole thing.
Bottom Line
The Zoe Ball body transformation wasn’t dramatic or shocking. It was just real. A 54-year-old woman dealing with menopause found something that helped with one annoying symptom and shared it online. That’s it.
No miracle cure. No dramatic weight loss. No pretending everything’s perfect now. Just a bit less bloating and a bit more comfort. Sometimes that’s all you need.
