Chris Moyles has spoken openly about being told he had lost his Radio 1 breakfast show and was to be replaced by Nick Grimshaw.
The Radio X presenter, 48, from Leeds, told fellow campmate I’m A Celebrity about his shock exit from the station after 15 years.
Chris Moyles spoke candidly to MP Matt Hancock, 44, about how he was called into an urgent meeting just an hour before the announcement.
He revealed that at the reunion he was told that the station would shortly announce that Nick Grimshaw would be taking over the breakfast show.
Chris Moyles said he was “angry” by the sudden news that he was losing his show and said Radio 1 had “mishandled” the situation.
Chris began presenting the show in 2004 and hosted the show for eight years, making him the longest-serving presenter to hold the slot.
The current Radio X breakfast host then said, “Everything happens for a reason.”
Chris then shared, “I knew Radio 1 is a treadmill and you could be there for a year or you could be there for 15 years but you’re going to fall off at the end of it at some point.”
To which Matt Hancock replied: “Politics is like that.” before asking the radio host for more details.
Chris Moyles said that although the encounter was sudden, he left the station happy adding: “I was a little upset after I left and I was upset… they handled it so badly, so badly handled it.”
The radio presenter shared his experiences with being told he was losing his show, telling the former health secretary: “So I walked in with my agent and the comptroller and we got together. sat down and he said, ‘Look, it’s not very easy, I think it’s time for us to end the show. We’re going to announce on the news at 10:30 a.m. that Nick Grimshaw is taking over.”
He then added: ‘Then my agent said ‘it’s down’ and it all got a little steamy and I’m like ‘you two calm down, stop it.
“I said to the boss, ‘You can’t do this’ and he said, ‘Well, if we don’t do this, it will come out. and I said, ‘Well, until 60 seconds ago, I didn’t know that. So after 15 years you can’t do that anymore. I have to announce that I’m quitting the breakfast show and we have to figure out what’s going on.
Chris then shared that he was then cleared to make the announcement to his listeners the next day.
He said, “I was like, ‘Okay, okay. “But they gave us three months to say goodbye, which was great. So I said, ‘you know, thank you for everything, cheers’.
The radio presenter then told Matt Hancock how he took a year off and went to live in Los Angeles for a month, where he met his longtime girlfriend, Tiffany Austin.
Chris said, “Yeah, so everything happens for a reason.”
Speaking later to the Bush Telegraph, Chris Moyles added: “When you do the breakfast show on Radio 1, you get these amazing opportunities, but you always know in the back of your mind, a day that will end .”
“So when that ended, doing the musical, doing my own tour, then meeting my future girlfriend – then my life changed completely. So no regrets, all happy, it’s been a good trip so far.
