BBC Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox has opened up about her upcoming role as the station’s new breakfast host. The 51-year-old will step down from her teatime programme after seven years to take over from Scott Mills, who was sacked from the station earlier this year.
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“The week of keeping it a secret was really hard, I’m not good with big secrets and I am not a good fibber at all,” she revealed.
Recounting an uncomfortable conversation with Mark, she went on to say: “He was like, ‘It would be interesting to see what they do with Breakfast’, while glancing at her insisting her knew. “I was like, ‘Ugh yes it will be won’t it Mark Goodier!’, I was like, ‘He knows, he knows!’ I was like, ‘This is hell, I can’t fib anymore’.
Scott Mills was sacked from BBC Radio 2 earlier this year (Image: BBC/Owen Scurfield)
She added: “All throughout my teatime show, I wouldn’t nearly be saying it, but I’d be like, ‘Oh this would work on Breakfast or we could do this on Breakfast’ and I was like [frantically reminding herself] ‘No nobody knows!’.”
In a statement issued by the BBC on 23 April, the presenter said she was “ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed” to be taking over the station’s flagship programme later this summer.
“It’s been a dream to host the breakfast show since I joined Radio 2 and it feels like a bit of a full circle for me,” she added.
Speaking to listeners on her programme following the announcement, Sara added: “It takes quite a lot to make me speechless, but when I got asked to host the Radio 2 breakfast show I was momentarily lost for words.”
Sara Cox will leave her teatime show after seven years (Image: Joe Maher/Getty Images)
She continued by describing her time presenting the teatime slot as an “absolute blast”, characterising it as a “golden seven years”, while acknowledging she was now “absolutely buzzing” to be stepping into the breakfast role.
Sara had previously been in the running for the position seven years ago, before Zoe Ball bagged the job. Reflecting on that decision now, she conceded the timing works considerably better for her as a parent.
“Nobody needs me as much as they did seven years ago,” she added on the Pottering with Tom Allen podcast. When the host enquired about her new wake-up schedule, Sara joked that she found the “tedious” question tiresome.
“I messaged Greg James the other day saying, ‘I’ve forgotten that the only tedious thing about doing Breakfast is people asking what time do you get up?’
“And he was like, ‘Yeah people are obsessed, I’ve still not got a good answer for it’. I remember when I was doing the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, I was going to get a T-shirt that said, ‘I go to bed at this time, I get up at this time’ which perhaps is a bit chippy of me.”
