Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC's Hardball since 1997, has announced that he is retiring from the network.

In Matthews's monologue, he said "after a conversation with MSNBC" it would be the last Hardball, citing a "younger generation...improving the workplace" and acknowledged that "compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were okay. They were never okay, not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past I'm sorry."

Those statements seem to be in direct response to a story published last week on GQ by columnist Laura Bassett, who detailed her account here of two instances backstage at Matthews's show during which he made inappropriate comments that made her uncomfortable, including saying: “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”

Bassett also detailed some of the many examples of Matthews's behavior toward female guests over the years, which ranged from inappropriate comments to undermining women candidates. That included a moment following the 10th Democratic presidential primary debate in South Carolina on February 25th, when he badgered presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren over her belief of a woman who alleged that former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg told her to "kill it" while she was pregnant and in his employment—a statement that has been corroborated by a third party in the Washington Post.

Matthews's retirement also came after a week of criticism for comparing the campaign of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, to the Nazi invasion of France, and mixing up Democrat Jamie Harrison, who is challenging Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina senate race, with senator Tim Scott, who is also black.

Matthews's announcement seemed to surprise his colleagues. He declared his retirement at the top of the show, and his replacement for the rest of episode of Hardball, Steve Kornacki, looked visibly shaken, saying: "That was a lot to take in just now. I'm sure you're still absorbing that. And I am, too." And in response to Willie Geist tweeting the retirement announcement, Katy Tur responded, "Wait. What?"