John Humphrys retirement: BBC host announces plans to quit Radio 4's Today programme

Veteran presenter says he 'assumes' he will be giving up the job at some point in 2019

The veteran presenter has indicated that he wishes to step down (Rex)

John Humphrys is planning on quitting BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this year, according to reports.

After spending more than three decades on the early morning news and current affairs show, the veteran presenter has indicated that he wishes to step down.

The 75-year-old said he “assumes” he will be giving up the job at some point in 2019.

“I’m assuming it’ll be this year. That’s what I’m assuming, but I haven’t fixed a date,” Mr Humphrys told the Daily Mail.

“It’s not easy to leave a job you’ve been doing for 32 years. It’s more than half my professional life.”

Mr Humphrys said he was no longer an “ambitious youngster with many, many more challenges ahead” of him.

“I’ve always taken the view – and this is the problem in a way – that I would carry on doing it either until they threw me out or had enough of me, or that I’d got bored of it or stopped enjoying it,” he added.

“None of those things has happened.”

Mr Humphrys joined Today in January 1987, alongside Brian Redhead, but continued to work on other BBC news programmes.

His departure could trigger a shake-up on the show.

In 2017 Mr Humphrys was at the centre of the debate surrounding the gender pay gap at the BBC, during which he was revealed as one of the corporation’s biggest earners.

At the time he was taking home more than half a million pounds.

The BBC declined to comment on the report.

Additional reporting from agencies