John Humphrys confirms he’s quit BBC’s Today after 32 years and says ‘I should have gone years ago’
The veteran broadcaster said the show has dominated his life and leaving will give him the chance to concentrate on other things
JOHN Humphrys has confirmed he'll quit BBC'S Today programme in the autumn after 32 years at the helm.
The broadcasting veteran, 75, told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One he should have left the show years ago but clung on for fear he would miss it.
He said: “I love doing the programme, I have always enjoyed it, always loved it. And I still (do), that’s the problem; I should have gone years ago, obviously I should have gone years ago, but I love doing the programme.”
Speaking to former Today presenter Sarah Montague, who worked alongside Humphrys for 18 years, John said: “As you know, when you do this programme it dominates your life, not just because you have to get up in the morning so many days a week, but all the time, you have to be obsessed - I think that is the right word - with what’s going on out there.
“You have to read everything and listen to everything and all the rest of it. There are so many things you think ‘oh I could have done this, I could have done that’ and I’m never going to do them if I stay on this programme.”
In January last year he famously agreed to take a pay cut along with five other high-earning men at the BBC following the fall out over gender pay gap.
That same month he was heard in an off-air recording joking about his high salary in a conversation about his colleague Carrie Gracie, who quite her role as BBC China editor in a dispute over unequal pay.
He said: "And I could save you the trouble because I could volunteer that I've handed over already more than you f***ing earn, but I'm still left with more than anybody else, and that seems to me to be entirely just. Something like that would do it, do you think?"
Speaking today, John admitted he had thought in the past about leaving the programme but then “lost his nerve”.
When asked if he worried about what would happen after leaving, John said no, but admitted he still fears he will miss the programme: “I worry about missing the programme, and I do now. I genuinely worry about what it is going to be like not doing the Today programme - 32 years is very long time.”
John assured listeners he will not be retiring and plans to continue presenting Mastermind. “I will stop doing the Today programme, yes, but I will not retire.”
He paid tribute to his Today listeners, speaking fondly of both those who loved him and "hated his guts".
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“This is unspeakably corny but it’s not the politicians, it’s not even the interviewees, it’s the listeners.
"You genuinely feel after you have done this programme for long enough that you have – now I’m not going to say ‘friends’, you can’t say that as a lot of them aren’t your friends, they hate your guts - but you do feel that you have a relationship with a huge amount of people…
"It’s a relationship with millions of listeners that is a huge privilege.”
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