Claudia Winkleman will step down from hosting her Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2, the corporation has said.
Romesh Ranganathan will take over the slot after Winkleman steps down in March 2024.
Winkleman said: “I absolutely love Radio 2 and it’s been a privilege to host the Saturday morning show for three years. I will miss our amazing guests, our brilliant listeners and the one and only Sally Traffic.
“The truth is my children are growing up inordinately fast so I have decided to follow them around at home before they leave for good. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who works on the show, I will continue to visit with badly made biscuits and will pester the bosses to present the odd special.
“I couldn’t be happier that Romesh is taking over Saturday mornings on Radio 2. He is brilliantly laugh-out loud funny and I’ll listen every single week as my kids beg me to leave them alone.”
Ranganathan will present his first show in April 2024.
He said: “In my many years working as a maths teacher thinking: ‘What would happen if I gave this up?’, I never imagined I’d be sandwiched between Dermot O’Leary and Steve Wright on the UK’s most popular radio station every Saturday morning.
“I’m grateful to Claud for wanting to spend more time with her kids, and enabling me to spend less time with mine, and I look forward to finding out what the nation is up to at that time, as well as speaking to some familiar faces. It’s going to be fun. Probably.”
Announcing the news at the start of her show on Saturday, Winkleman said her daughter was getting ready to leave home but she still had a “little one who wants to be with me”. She added: “I don’t know how long that will last and I just need to be at home more.”
Winkleman joined Radio 2 in 2008 to host the comedy quiz series Hot Gossip before moving to Friday nights to host the Claudia Winkleman Arts Show. In 2016, she began presenting Claudia on Sunday and moved to her Saturday morning slot in February 2021, replacing the Irish broadcaster Graham Norton who moved to present a show on Virgin Radio.
She currently co-hosts Strictly Come Dancing with Tess Daly and helms the hit BBC psychological competition Traitors, which is returning for series two next year.
The head of Radio 2, Helen Thomas, said: “I’d like to thank Claudia for entertaining her millions of listeners each Saturday morning with such sparkling wit and great warmth. I’m delighted to welcome Romesh to his new Saturday morning show on Radio 2.”
The BBC’s chief content officer, Charlotte Moore, thanked Winkleman for “all the laughs” she had given listeners over the past three years, as she hailed her as one of the broadcaster’s “most-loved presenters”.
She added: “Romesh is hugely popular with BBC audiences so I’m thrilled that he will be bringing his own unique sense of humour to Saturday mornings on Radio 2. I can’t wait to hear his new show.”
Winkleman’s departure marks the latest in a number of high-profile presenters leaving or moving slots on BBC Radio, including Ken Bruce, who left Radio 2 in March having presented his mid-morning programme for more than three decades. Bruce began a new show on Greatest Hits Radio in April – taking his popular music quiz PopMaster with him.
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