John Humphrys has confirmed he will leave the Today programme in the autumn, bringing to an end his 32-year stint as a host on the BBC Radio 4 show.

The presenter joked on Wednesday morning’s programme, that his departure would “make other people happier possibly” and confirmed his departure in an interview with the rival Radio 4 show The World at One.

The broadcaster had earlier told the Daily Mail he was “assuming” he would leave the early morning news and current affairs show in 2019 but had yet to formally hand in his notice.

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”.

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.”

Humphrys will not be disappearing from the BBC altogether, with the corporation coincidentally announcing on Wednesday that he has been signed up to present the quiz show Mastermind for another two years.

His supposedly imminent retirement from Today has been the subject of media speculation for more than a decade. Much of this has been stoked by Humphrys, who would give interviews predicting his departure before going on to sign a contract extension.

This time he really is on the way to the exit. The Today programme editor, Sarah Sands, said: “Enjoy John’s lap of honour this year. Totally uninterested in his own publicity. A king of broadcasting.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest BBC presenter John Humphrys in 2017. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

The 75-year-old’s departure after almost a third of a century with the same programme will end a high-profile and often controversial stint on the airwaves, during which he shaped the reporting of British politics. His aggressive interviewing style won both fans and detractors, with his political stance coming under particular scrutiny following the Brexit referendum.

Humphrys, who as a young journalist reported on the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster, later joined the BBC where he worked as a foreign correspondent before becoming he lead presenter on the Nine O’Clock News. He then transferred to the Today programme in 1987, where he has covered the administrations of six different prime ministers for the show.

He has been writing a book on his times with the programme entitled The Today Files, and could have found it hard to promote the inside story of the programme while still appearing on it.

Last year, he was at the centre of an equal pay row after a recording leaked of him making off-air comments about the BBC’s gender pay gap, following the resignation of the corporation’s China editor, Carrie Gracie, in protest.

BBC pay disclosure figures revealed that in 2017 Humphrys received between £600,000 and £649,999 for his work on the Today programme and Mastermind. Following an outcry he agreed to take a substantial pay cut, with his combined salary set to fall below £300,000.

The pay disclosure caused ructions among Today presenters, with Humphrys’ longtime colleague Sarah Montague leaving the programme after discovering she was paid substantially less than fellow on-air colleagues.

Humphrys’ departure will open up a presenting slot on the programme alongside hosts Nick Robinson, Mishal Husain, Martha Kearney and Justin Webb. The appointment could be one of the first major decisions for the next Radio 4 controller.

Sands has previously described Humphrys as a “listeners’ champion”. “He’s extremely curious, he’s extremely engaged, fantastically interested in new subjects and new people and real people. The overall purpose in him is pursuit of truth,” she said.