She has revealed the heartbreaking reason why she and her husband decided to marry in secret earlier this year.
The former Blue Peter presenter wed long-time love Will Corrie in Barbados in April without a single family member or friend there to witness it.
Opening up for the first time about her decision, Zoe explains it was because her mum was so gravely ill she couldn’t make it to the wedding, reports Belfast Live.
Reports at the time said Zoe hadn’t even told her parents about her romantic getaway – but today the star reveals that couldn’t have been further from the truth, and her mum Priscilla, who passed away last month after a long battle with two terminal illnesses, was over the moon about her daughter’s big day
That was the difficult thing,” says Zoe. “My parents knew all about it, they paid for our wedding. But mum was just too ill to be there. I can only really say that now because at the time mum’s illness was so private, she didn’t want anyone to know.
“People were baffled about why we’d done it, but that’s why.
“Our wedding day was lovely. I felt like my mum was there with me in a way because for my something borrowed she gave me her bottle of Chanel No5 and I wore it that day.
"It’s the perfume she wore her whole life and wearing it made it feel like mum, one of the most special people in my whole life, was there with me.”
Eloping, reveals Zoe, from Bangor, Co Down, also runs in the family.
“Mum and dad did it themselves,” she laughs. “They got married in Bournemouth on their own. And my two sisters did it too. My older sister Lara got married in Mauritius and my younger sister Naomi did the same in Antigua.
“We all did it for different reasons obviously, and I couldn’t have married at home because mum couldn’t have made it. But the fact we all did it meant it didn’t feel sad that Will and I got married on our own.
I spoke to mum and dad after the wedding – they hadn’t known the exact day that week we were doing it, so that was the surprise bit. But they were thrilled for us. They’d known Will for more than five years so they were delighted.
“The main difference with our wedding and the rest of the family was that they had a party when they got home, but of course we couldn’t do that because mum was too ill to be there. Again, because it was all so private no one outside the family knew why. I hope now people understand.”
It’s been an incredibly tough and intense year for Zoe, who is currently starring in Channel 4’s The Island with Bear Grylls, alongside comedian Dom Joly, reality star Lydia Bright and TV doctor Dawn Harper.
In fact during filming for the show back in February, which Zoe did to raise awareness for the charity Stand up to Cancer, her mind was constantly occupied with thoughts of home and her family.
“It was a real constant concern because you have no phone, no contact with the world,” she recalls.
“Mum was very ill at the time. A message had been left with Channel 4 and the production company that if anything at all was to happen they had to let me know and I’d fly straight home.
“It was at the back of my mind the whole time. With the craziness of everyone there having their own journey, every night going to bed I thought about mum and all the people I was there for. That’s what got me through the difficult points.
“I’d think there are people out there like my mum who are never going to get any better. The only thing I had to do was survive a little while on an island.”
And while Zoe’s work is hugely important to her, the experiences of the past few months – and one in particular – have helped put things into perspective.
Work commitments meant for a few excruciating hours, the presenter feared she might not get the chance to say goodbye to the mum she describes as ‘perfect’ before she died.
“I just managed to get back from London the night before mum passed away,” she says.
“It was pretty terrible. My flight was delayed and I was desperate to get back. I just wanted to get home to my mum.
“I knew at that stage things were getting serious, although it had been such a long time you never really know. You think maybe you’ll have another day or a month or maybe a year.
“But this time I had a real gut feeling about it. I didn’t want to go to London but I was contracted to be there. It was so horrible having to leave the country knowing Mum was so ill.”
To make things even worse, Zoe’s flight back to Belfast was delayed.
“All I could think was, ‘I want to get home, I want to get home’, for the two or three hours it was delayed. When someone’s really ill, two or three hours makes a huge difference.
“And when I got back I went straight to my parents’ house in Bangor and got there by about 9pm. Mum passed away the next morning. She died within 12 hours.”
It was the experience of that night that has changed Zoe’s outlook on life and work.
“It taught me a major lesson in life,” she says. “Always trust your gut feeling. My gut was telling me not to go to London. I didn’t want to go, but I felt I had to, I felt like my hand was forced. I’ll never let that happen again. I will never let my career come in front of my family ever again.
“The whole thing was quite traumatic and extremely stressful. I was worrying not only about my mum, but my whole family.”
Thankfully though, they were all there as Priscilla passed away at the family home.
“The Northern Ireland Hospice were amazing throughout mum’s illness,” adds Zoe. “But we were so lucky because she wasn’t taken into the hospice for her final months. She was cared for and passed away in the place she loved most in the world, our family home.
“It’s our favourite place in the world, where we all grew up. It’s the heart and soul of our whole family and we were so happy she was there at the end, somewhere full of memories of her and all of us.”
Just a month on from Priscilla’s death, Zoe, her sisters, dad Joe and brother Julian are still coming to terms with what’s happened.
“With long term illness it can be difficult,” says Zoe. “You constantly try to take the positives and think some miracle might happen so it’s still a shock when they pass away.
“We’re doing as well as can be expected. You put on a brave face and you just push on with life but she’s in my thoughts 24/7. I dream about her and think about her all the time.
“Anyone who knew my mum just loved her. She was one of those people that was pretty much perfect. Always smiling, always happy, a really good listener. A good Samaritan, a real decent, good person.
“We’ve had so much support and hundreds of cards and messages from people so we’ve heard all these lovely memories that we didn’t even know about. It’s comforting to be around my family. We are constantly talking about her, every single day.”
Zoe’s own memories of hairdresser Priscilla are wonderful – and she hopes to share them with her own children if they come along in the future.
“I was so lucky because me and mum got to do loads of amazing stuff together,” she recalls.
“Mum did modelling when she was younger too, and when I started doing it we did stuff together. She supported my whole career.
When I was on Blue Peter she’d fly over to London, she was there for my last show. She came over for Dancing on Ice and she loved when I worked on Fame Academy. She was so beautiful and people just loved having her around. We got to do different photoshoots together for charity and different projects.
“And we even got to do some TV together when we went back to a place we’d gone on holiday years ago. It was amazing because we revisited this place as adults and got to relive memories and share that time together.
“There are lots of things I wish I could do with her now and in the future but I know I’m lucky we got to do so much. We had lots of time and all these amazing memories are so well documented. I’ll always be able to look back and remember.
“I hope that in the future with kids, I’ll be able to show them how lovely Granny Salmon was.”
Zoe and her family have set up The Priscilla Edith Salmon Fund with the Northern Ireland Hospice in memory of her mum.
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