Emily Maitlis has announced she is quitting the BBC after 20 years.
The Newsnight presenter is set to join the Global radio family to host a new daily podcast with fellow BBC journalist Jon Sopel, who is also departing the corporation.
Emily described it as a “wrench” to leave the BBC after a “phenomenal” two decades.
In an update on Twitter, Emily said: “I am so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had there. More than anything I’m grateful to have worked with the most incredible people - many of whom are dear friends. I owe my BBC colleagues everything.”
Of her new role, Emily also said: “It’s an amazing opportunity to do something we all love, and we are so thrilled Global is giving us this opportunity to be big and ambitious with this project.”
In a statement, she added that the new daily podcast will “build on everything we’ve achieved” with the BBC Sounds podcast Americast over the last few years.
“It will find new audiences and a new home with Global. I couldn’t be more excited,” she added.
Jon, who had most recently served as the BBC’s North America editor said he was leaving the BBC after nearly four decades with “nothing but good feelings towards the corporation”.
He tweeted: “Opportunities like this just don’t come along very often. But am sad to leave the BBC which has been home for so long.
“Of course, it will be a wrench to leave the BBC after nearly 4 decades, and have loved my time there – partic the last seven years as North America Editor. I leave with nothing but good feelings towards the Corporation, and wish all the best to my colleagues and friends there.”
Global said that full details of Emily and Jon’s daily podcast will be announced later in the year.
Emily had served as the lead host of Newsnight since the departure of Evan Davis in 2018.
Her tenure has made headlines on a number of occasions, most notably with her monologue on Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle during the first national Covid lockdown in 2020, in which she claimed he “broke the rules”.
The BBC later ruled hat Emily had breached their impartiality guidelines with the opener.
This divided opinion on social media at the time, with Piers Morgan one of those defending Emily, suggesting she’d been thrown “under the bus” by her employers.
Emily was previously reprimanded by her BBC bosses after sharing a tweet from the former Good Morning Britain host, in which he asked what the punishment was for “failing to properly protect the country from a pandemic?”
Emily and Jon’s follow a number of other high-profile departures from the BBC in recent months.
Political broadcaster Andrew Marr quit after 21 years in November after signing a deal with Global radio, while 2020 saw Andrew Neil quit after 25 years to launch GB News, with newsreader Simon McCoy following him.
Both broadcasters have subsequently left the station.