Sue Barker ‘insulted’ by BBC after being booted from A Question Of Sport after 24 years
SUE Barker revealed she felt 'insulted' by the BBC when she was forced off of A Question Of Sport after 24 years on the show.
The former Question Of Sport host opened up about her experience on A Question Of Sport, and why she was axed from the BBC programme after so many years in her new autobiography.
The presenter, 66, confirmed her departure from the quiz programme in 2020, after being axed from the show by the BBC.
After being brutally dropped from the show, Sue was later replaced by Paddy McGuiness.
Sue has since said she was persuaded to lie and to say she made the decision to leave the show before being fired.
She confessed all in her new autobiography shown in the , claiming there were feuds over her retirement from the Wimbledon coverage earlier this year.
Sue also revealed she was left "gobsmacked" and "insulted" at how the BBC handled her departure.
She wrote: “After 24 years in the hotseat, I was sacked as the host of the BBC quiz show A Question Of Sport – and I’m afraid that has left me slightly damaged.
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“I had no problem with being replaced. It was the way it was handled.
"It taught me there is actually no way of leaving a role in a nice, pleasant and helpful manner, with your head held high."
Sue hosted A Question Of Sport from 1996 until 2021 alongside panellists Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson.
"They hadn’t bothered to get a quote from me. Why hadn’t they reacted to our request earlier? Why had we been shown so little respect?" she wrote in her autobiography.
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"I told the BBC to own their decision and declare publicly that they wanted to refresh the show; I wasn’t going to lie to make it easier for them."
Sue claimed the BBC then tried to get her back on side, saying: "Unbelievably, they then offered me my job back.
"But as I couldn’t help but feel they didn’t want me anymore, I declined. The following day, I was again asked to say I was leaving 'for the good of the show'.
"What on earth were they thinking?"
"I was sent a statement that the BBC wanted me to approve immediately, saying the three of us had decided to step aside," she added.
"It was the way it was handled. It taught me there is actually no way of leaving a role in a nice, pleasant and helpful manner, with your head held high.
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Sue shared: "The only thing we asked the BBC was to get statements from us all for when the news broke. But we heard nothing. No email, no letter, no phone call. Silence."
She concluded: "I will miss it terribly when it's not an annual part of my life. But I have no regrets."
