BBC Breakfast host presents last ever shift after announcing she’s quitting
VICTORIA Valentine hosted her last BBC Breakfast show today – 15 years after joining the channel.
The presenter, who appeared alongside Ben Boulos this morning, confirmed the news to a fan, writing: “It is indeed my last @BBCBreakfast shift.”
Victoria, 39, later added: “To the regular who clocked it was my last @BBCBreakfast shift.
“I have a few more 0500 BST shifts over the next fortnight on @BBCWorld.
“UK viewers can catch the 1st hour on @BBCOne.
“Still active on Insta as @thesocialgardener – a nature/news adjacent pootle around my brain.”
Victoria had told fans last month that she would be leaving her seat as business correspondent and relief presenter to head back to university.
She explained: “I am taking a little bit of a break from broadcasting and from the BBC in order to explore something new.
The presenter added that she’d be studying psychological sciences and would be looking at how the mind works.
“So I – at the grand old age of 39 – going back to university. I am enrolled in a full time masters course, psychological sciences which I’ve kind of sold to my parents as a bit of neuroscience with some thinking and feeling stuff attached to it.”
“You can probably understand why that would appeal and be something I’m interested in.”
Victoria then added that she was aiming to do a doctorate if her studies were to be successful.
“Should that all go well and I’m not terrible at it, I’ll be looking to progress and do a doctorate.”
“Perhaps four years from now you’ll be looking at Dr Valentine”, she quipped.
“Really sad” to be losing her audience, Victoria confirmed her last days on the air adding: “I’ve got a month left of the odd shift at BBC News and I’ve got some shifts at BBC Breakfast too.”
Victoria’s exit follows the confirmation of her divorce from writer and barrister Dan Fritz, with whom she shares two children.
The TV favourite broke the news on October 26, 2022, and made it official by changing her surname to “Valentine”, her mother’s maiden name.
Victoria first joined the BBC as a senior broadcast journalist in September, 2008, where she produced business and economics stories for BBC News.
Five years after her debut with the broadcaster, she became a business news presenter and correspondent.
Since 2015, she’d been presenting multiple news programs on BBC World News.