Ken Bruce has “absolutely” no ill will towards the BBC.

Ken Bruce isn't harbouring bad feelings towards the BBC

Ken Bruce isn't harbouring bad feelings towards the BBC

The former BBC Radio 2 DJ recently departed the public broadcaster for a new adventure at Greatest Hits Radio after 45 years, and the star admitted he wanted to take on a new challenge rather than go through a "slow decline".

After being asked by Lorraine Kelly if he and the BBC had any “hard feelings” on her ITV1 chat show ’Lorraine’, the 72-year-old broadcaster said: “Absolutely not”.

Lorraine deemed it “great” that he decided on a new frontier professionally.

The 63-year-old presenter said: “You know, I think it's great you wanted to have a challenge."

Ken responded: "That's right, there is a time in your life where you say, 'Do I keep on doing this forever and ever and watch a slow decline?'

"Or, do you give yourself a kick up the backside and try something new.

"I mean, it's not brand new because I'm more or less doing the same thing, but it's a different environment and a commercial station which I've never worked on before.

"So it will be a little challenge but enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes."

This exchange comes after Ken labelled it "unnecessary" for the BBC to have given him an early send-off from his long-standing gig.

He told the Daily Mail newspaper: "That was disappointing. I thought, 'Come on, you can trust me. I’m not going to do a Dave Lee Travis' [referring to the ex-BBC DJ who resigned on air in 1993]. I’m not going to start badmouthing everybody because I had a lovely time at the BBC. So it was all a bit ... unnecessary."

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