Countryfile star quits show after 13 years as she shares emotional message with fans

ok.co.uk:

Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison has revealed she is quitting the BBC show after 13 years. The 45 year old TV star broke the news in her last ever column for Countryfile magazine.

Ellie, who has presented the show since 2009, said: "After 13 years, my final column is a fond farewell to Countryfile - I'll miss the people, places and stories. "Thirteen-and-a-half years after I arrived four hours early for my first Countryfile shoot, which culminated in me commuting up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) to deliver Matt Baker a sandwich of freshly harvested mushrooms, it has come time for me to bid you farewell. "It has been a decision I've drawn out, such is the bond with the programme, and boy will I miss the geography field trips.

But like all endings, I'll take all the lessons from these days forward with me on my journey." Ellie went on to say she had left the show to focus on raising her ‘three wonderful children’ while growing the family business and following her “creative calling” by producing art of her own making - suggesting perhaps a return to music.

She concluded: "The winds of change are blowing, my hands turn the tiller and I close my eyes to take comfort from Invictus: 'I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’." Ellie's partner is GP Matthew Goodman and they have three children together.The TV star has previously opened up on how she had been deliberately scarred to honour her relationship with Matt.