Fearne Cotton breaks silence on split from estranged husband
Fearne Cotton has opened up about her relationship with ex Jesse Wood in the aftermath of their divorce.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter and podcaster revealed in December 2024 that she had split from Wood after a decade of marriage, stating: “It is with a heavy heart that I let you all know that Jesse and I are ending our marriage.
“Our priority has been and always will be our children. We please ask that you respect the privacy of our family at this time.”
Speaking about the separation on Lorraine, Cotton said that things have remained “amicable” between the pair.
“I’m good, really good, happy, and it’s all very amicable, and the kids are doing great. So yeah, I’m in a very good space,” she told host Lorraine Kelly.
“I’ve sat on this very chair before and been riddled with anxiety, but I’m in a really good place where I don’t really have it any more.
“I’ve been very lucky that I’ve done a bunch of therapy and I’ve made a few tweaks to my life, but I’m pretty much anxiety-free, I would say.”
Cotton married Wood, the son of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, in July 2014. The pair share two children, Rex and Honey, while Cotton also has two more children, Arthur and Lola, from a previous relationship.
The broadcaster began her career in the late 1990s, presenting children’s television shows for GMTV, CITV and CBBC, before going on to host Top of the Pops and The Xtra Factor.
She then became the first regular female presenter of the Radio 1 Chart Show in 2007, going on to present her own weekday 10am show on the station from 2009 before leaving in 2015.
Cotton has been very vocal about her anxiety and the pressure of being in the public eye, and has since founded a wellness brand, Happy Place, which includes a festival and podcast where she discusses life, love and loss with a celebrity guest while exploring what happiness means to them.
Her comments come after she had two benign tumours removed from her jaw, months after presenter Davina McCall underwent surgery to remove a colloid cyst – a type of rare fluid-filled benign tumour in the brain.
Speaking on the ITV breakfast show, she said: “[Davina’s] been amazing. I mean it was weird that we both had a kind of similar health thing going on at the same time. So I spoke to her nearly every day – I still do, we speak every day.
“She’s just the best mate and was so calming, because her operation was a little bit before mine. So when I was in hospital, I talked to her quite a lot, and, yeah, she’s just been amazing.”
Speaking about her surgery, Cotton added: “I felt weirdly calm and I’m not quite sure why, and I was very grateful it was benign.
“It ended up being one tumour, and then I had to have a few lymph nodes out, but it was wrapping itself around a nerve that basically, sort of controls all of your facial expressions, there is a bit of a risk, but I felt I was in really good hands.
“I just feel very grateful that I’ve completely recovered. I feel really good.”
Additional reporting by Agencies
