BBC 5Live presenter Rachel Burden has spoken out about leaving the station’s breakfast show, emotionally revealing that she’s ready to “move on to other things” after 15 years.

The radio personality began hosting the channel’s weekday breakfast show in 2011 and has spent the last five years presenting it alongside Rick Edwards. However, the pair will be stepping down in January next year.

On Tuesday (28 July), the pair announced that they would be stepping down from the role, with BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty set to replace them.

Speaking on the show yesterday, Burden, 51, became tearful as she said: “I have some news to share with you. Ah, I’m going to keep it together. I said I’d keep it together!

“We have been working together on 5 Live Breakfast for five years now, and I have been co-presenting this show for over 15 years. It is the best job in the world and I have loved, I think, almost every single minute of it.

“But we have both been thinking a lot in recent months about what comes next, and I guess how we meet sort of shifting priorities in our lives. We have decided that it is time for us to step down from the show and move onto other things.”

Burden added that both she and Edwards came to the decision “on our own separately but together as well” and that the TV presenter had “grown on me like a friendly fungus” over the years.

“But for me, it really is just about realising that it is time to do something new because 15 years is a long time and I think I need to poke myself out of my comfort zone and challenge myself in a different way – which by the way, will still be at 5Live,” she continued.

“I’m never leaving this place. I am really sad about leaving Breakfast, but I am very excited about what comes next.”

Burden will be hosting the channel’s weekday mid-morning programme, while Edwards will continue to present Fighting Talk, which airs on Saturday mornings.

Meanwhile, Munchetty will be leaving BBC Breakfast after 17 years to take over 5Live’s breakfast slot. She announced the news in a statement yesterday, saying that it’s been a “privilege” to be part of the show’s TV team.

Last year, the BBC reportedly launched an investigation into allegations of bullying levelled at Munchetty, with the broadcaster saying that it “did not comment on individual HR matters” at the time. The BBC has not said that the bullying investigation was related to her BBC Breakfast exit and the outcome of the investigation is currently unknown.

Burden isn’t just leaving 5Live’s breakfast show; she announced earlier this month that she would no longer be presenting on BBC Breakfast, where she currently hosts Sunday morning shows. The programme will no longer be broadcast on Sunday mornings as part of the BBC’s efforts to make budget cuts.

“This is my last Sunday on the @bbcbreakfast sofa before the schedule changes in September – no complaints there, we have to cut our cloth,” she wrote. “But having done this for 10+ years, just wanted to say a massive thanks to the team who’ve worked through their Saturday nights to put the programme together, my Breakfast buddies Roger [Johnson, presenter] and @benthompsontv (among other lovely fellas who I’ve shared the sofa with).”