The veteran broadcaster assumes he'll leave this year.
John Humphrys is set to step down from hosting
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after more than three decades, it has been reported.
The veteran broadcaster said he had “indicated” his intentions to leave to his BBC bosses and “assumes” his last day will be in 2019, although he has not yet handed in his notice.
Humphrys, 75, told the Daily Mail: “I’m assuming it’ll be this year. That’s what I’m assuming, but I haven’t fixed a date.”
He said he had previously believed he would carry on doing the job “either until they threw me out or had enough of me, or that I’d got bored of it or stopped enjoying it, but none of those things have happened.”
However, the broadcaster, who has been hosting the flagship show for 32 years, said there are others things he wanted to do with his life.
He added: “I still enjoy it enormously. I know that sounds ridiculous. There are mornings in mid-February when you don’t want to get up at half past three. But, equally, there are other things I want to do with my life, and one has to make the decision sooner or later.”
The news appeared to be confirmed by Sarah Sands, the editor of the flagship show, who tweeted a photo of Humphrys, saying: “Enjoy John’s lap of honour this year.”
She added that he was a “king of broadcasting”.
He also revealed he is planning to publish a book about his time on the show, which is provisionally titled The Today Files and is due to be published in September or October.
Humphrys came under fire during the BBC’s gender pay row after it was revealed he was one of the BBC’s biggest earners.
In 2017 he received between £600,000 and £649,999 for his work on the Today programme and presenting the quiz show Mastermind, the BBC’s pay disclosure figures revealed.
Following an outcry he agreed to take a substantial pay cut, but later got into hot water again when his off-air comments about the pay row following Carrie Gracie’s resignation as the broadcaster’s China editor were leaked and left BC management “deeply unimpressed”.
The BBC has declined to comment on the news.