Vanessa Feltz has opened up about her “hellish” decision to step down from her Radio 2 show earlier this year.
Back in July, the much-loved broadcaster made the tearful announcement live on Radio 2 that she would be leaving the BBC after almost 20 years.
The news came amid a mass exodus at Radio 2, with Steve Wright, Paul O’Grady and Craig Charles among those to have said farewell to either their show or the station in general in the last year.
Speaking to The Guardian, Vanessa described her decision to leave Radio 2 as “hellish” and “absolutely terrible”.
Explaining she left because her early-morning schedule was becoming hard to deal with, Vanessa explained: “All the time my grandchildren have been alive – they’re eight, seven, three and brand new – I’ve been jetlagged the whole time.”
However, she also said she was concerned Radio 2 was growing indifferent towards her, particularly after she accidentally booked a holiday during the Queen’s jubilee and was met with a nonplussed response.
“I said, ‘Surely you don’t want me to go away?’,’ she recalled. “And they said, ‘Oh no, it’ll be fine – have a lovely, lovely time’.”
Vanessa continued: “I was aware of women over the age of 60 suddenly biting the dust. I don’t think that I would have been exempt from that at all.”
On the subject of the raft of Radio 2 staples who have now left the BBC, she added: “It seems to be a casual culling and jettisoning of proper broadcasting adornments. And it feels as if that casualness and that callousness is applying not just to the presenters but to the audience.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, we don’t need you and we don’t want you. You’re too old, you’re too staid, you’re too middle-class, you’re too middle-aged.’”
Insisting the decision to leave was her own, Vanessa then added: “Have you seen what’s happened to local radio? I had to leave, didn’t I? I could feel it coming.
“It’s a terrible, terrible mistake. I think it’s absolutely heartbreaking … I just thought: ‘I do not want to preside over the demise of this.’ You might think I’m being overdramatic, but I honestly, genuinely, really cared about it.”
Since stepping down from the BBC, Vanessa has now landed her own show at TalkTV, which was already home to presenters including Piers Morgan, Jeremy Kyle and Sharon Osbourne.
