When Sara Cox speaks to HELLO! around midday, her high-energy warmth and trademark northern wit are infectious.
She has just wrapped up another broadcast of BBC Radio 2’s flagship breakfast show – a prestigious gig even before you consider that she is only the second female permanent host in the programme’s history, following Zoe Ball.
Having fronted the Radio 1 breakfast show in the early 2000s, the presenter views this milestone as a full-circle moment. “It feels like a coming-home gig. I absolutely love it,” Sara says. “I spend the first three hours of my day laughing, dancing around and honking my horn.
“It’s the best job in the world. The listeners are hilarious and it feels like one big happy family in the mornings.”
Does she have a dream guest she’d love to welcome into the studio? “We’ve had Tom Hanks, so why not Tom Cruise? And I’d love to get Julia Roberts on. She doesn’t do much press, which makes it even more exciting.”
Now 51, the mother of three – who has two children, Isaac, 18, and Renee, 16, with her husband of 13 years, the advertising executive Ben Cyzer, alongside daughter Lola, 22, from her previous marriage to the DJ Jon Carter – is embracing a new chapter of parenthood.
“In your twenties and thirties, you’re all over the place with your career and kids,” she says. “In your fifties, you’ve loosened the apron strings. You’ve got more time for you.”
As part of her work with Smart Energy GB, Sara is highlighting how modern technology saves the average person six hours a week – time she uses to ride her beloved horse, drop her shoulders and unwind.
© Getty ImagesIt also helps her to keep tabs on her family, she laughs. “If I wake up at 5am and my son’s been out, I can check my phone and see he’s safely home, because I'm tracking them all. Don't even get me started on smart doorbells – you can see their comings and goings when you’re away for the weekend!”
When it comes to unwinding at home, it’s a shared love of music that keeps her connected to her daughter Renee. “I've really loved Olivia Rodrigo's album – it brings me closer to my daughter, because we can listen to it together,” Sara says.
“She knew every word of the album within a day of it being dropped! We went to see her play at the O2 [in London] and I even got to interview her. She’s an incredible performer, and seeing the effect she had on all those young women in the audience was a real inspiration.”
Sara is proud of her latest novel, The Truth of Us, a personal love story that blends her childhood Christmases with her husband’s Jewish traditions, such as Rosh Hashanah and Friday night dinners. “It got a bit lost in the noise of starting the breakfast show, but it’s definitely my best book,” she says.
Reflecting on her Nineties TV breakout on Channel 4’s The Girlie Show, Sara looks back on her early career with her trademark humour. “I joke to people that it was a late-night political discussion show and they mustn’t Google it! But I wouldn’t be sitting here now without it.”
That experience included her first celebrity-interview disaster, with Dame Joanna Lumley. “I was so nervous and completely useless,” she says. “I panicked and asked her if she’d ever bought a [Heinz] Big Soup during her weekly shop. I mean, I don't know what the hell I was on about.
“She'd never heard of it, but she was such a class act. The lesson was definitely to tailor your questions, so the guests are going to at least know what the hell you're on about!”
Sara is encouraging households to book an appointment if contacted by their energy supplier about switching older smart-meter hardware for new kit
