The BBC’s royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell is to retire after nearly five decades with the corporation.
Witchell, who joined the broadcaster as a trainee in 1976, has covered the Royal Family for the last 25 years.
He reported on the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as multiple royal weddings, births and funerals.
The BBC confirmed Witchell, 70, will depart next year. “It’s time I shoved off to focus on other things,” he said.
“It has been a huge privilege for nearly half a century to work for simply the best news broadcaster in the world alongside some of the very finest producers, camera operators, editors and others,” Witchell wrote in an announcement sent to BBC staff.
“I hope Britain realises what it has in the BBC and cherishes it.”
While he was thanked by his BBC colleagues this week for his “remarkable service”, Witchell once famously proved to be less popular with one top royal.
In 2005, at a photoshoot in the Swiss Alps, the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, was heard on mic making disparaging remarks about the journalist, after he had asked a question about his upcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles.
“Bloody people,” said the royal. “I can’t bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.”
A few years after having joined the BBC fresh from Leeds University, in 1979, Witchell joined its Northern Ireland newsroom, reporting on the hunger strikes, the murder of Earl Mountbatten and the killing of 19 British soldiers on the same day at Warrenpoint.
The BBC has not yet announced who will replace Witchell when he leaves early next year.