3 weeks Ago By Chloe Govan
BBC Radio 2 's Jo Whiley suffered a quadruple blow after she lost three close friends and fellow radio star Steve Wright all within a short space of time. She opened up about the sad losses while preparing for her milestone 60th birthday this summer and admitted that they have reminded her of the importance of living life to the full. Talking in a new cover interview with Saga magazine , she mused: "These were friends who were integral to our lives - we'd go on holidays and spend weekends with them - so losing them made a huge dent.
There was a massive readjustment that I don't think we've ever recovered from. They were incredibly fun people and the fact that they could be here one day and gone the next gave us that sense of, 'Okay, we want to make sure we're here for as long as possible and have as much fun as possible with the kids.'" Despite the painful setbacks, Jo is still having a great time at work and has vowed that retirement is "never going to happen".
She also declared that she intends to be partying way into her 60s, exclaiming: "I don't get back until three or four in the morning after jumping up and down on stage all night - it's like a Jane Fonda workout!" She is battling through the aches and pains of osteoarthritis, which she says she has inherited from her mother and grandmother, but it doesn't stop her living a fulfilled life. Her job also comes with opportunities to socialise with celebs like Jay-Z, who has become one of just five musical artists in the world to hit billionaire status. According to Forbes, his net worth is $2.
5 billion (£1.88 billion) and he and wife Beyonce are known as the ultimate power couple, but Jo says he was totally down to earth when he came over for a game of basketball with her sons. She added of the native New Yorker: "He [then] sat drinking champagne and eating strawberries with my mum and my grandma.
.. it was the coolest thing that could possibly have happened.
" The BBC studios remain a lively place, but Jo will always be sad over the loss of Steve Wright, who died unexpectedly at his London flat in 2024. The death certificate confirmed he'd suffered a perforated gastric peptic ulcer and acute peritonitis, meaning the lining of his stomach would have split open. It was Jo and Steve's co-star Sara Cox who first announced his death on air, tearfully sharing the team's "deep sorrow and profound regret" - but they intend his legacy to live on forever.
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