Sara Cox has been named the new host of the Radio 2 breakfast show, taking over from Scott Mills later this summer after seven years in the station’s teatime slot. The 51-year-old said the move was a dream she had carried since joining Radio 2, but keeping it under wraps for a week was, in her words, “hell”.
The announcement landed on April 23, which is why listeners have suddenly been searching for Radio 2 and for Cox’s next move. In a statement shared by the, she said she was “ecstatic, honoured and incredibly chuffed” to be taking over the station’s flagship programme, and later told listeners she was “absolutely buzzing” about the promotion.
For Cox, the breakfast job has long been the one that got away and then came back around. She said she had come close to landing it seven years ago, before the role went to Zoe Ball, and added that “nobody needs me as much as they did seven years ago.” That makes this handover feel less like a surprise appointment than the closing of a circle that has been spinning for years.
But the part Cox found hardest was not the move itself. It was the silence. She said she is not good with big secrets and “not a good fibber at all”, and joked on air that Mark Goodier could work for MI5 after helping keep the news quiet. She later admitted, “This is hell, I can’t fib anymore,” a line that cut through the polished language of a broadcaster’s announcement and sounded more like someone relieved to stop pretending.
Cox also talked about the practical side of joining Breakfast: the wake-up time that comes with it, and the endless curiosity it provokes. On the Pottering with Tom Allen podcast, she said people are obsessed with asking what time Radio 2 breakfast hosts get up, and remembered wanting a T-shirt that read, “I go to bed at this time, I get up at this time.” That is the next part of the story listeners will notice soon enough, because the exact start date for her first show has not been set out publicly yet. What is clear is that Cox will soon trade a golden seven years at teatime for the station’s most visible shift of the day.
