ABC star Michael Rowland has quit the network after 39 years with the national broadcaster to care for his sick wife.
'After almost four decades in the grinding environment of daily news and current affairs, and having watched luck run out for so many people, I've decided now is a good time to step away,' he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.
'My wife, Nikki, who you all know, has been unwell over the last year or so, and I'm wanting to spend more time with her and family and move at a gentler pace.'
Rowland joined the ABC as an 18-year-old cadet journalist in January 1987.
The veteran presenter, who will finish up at the ABC on Friday, described his time at the national broadcaster as a 'great ride'.
'It's just the right time for my family and friends to step back from full-time work and move on to the next stage of life,' he said.
'It's bittersweet. I know this is the right decision for me, my family and my life going forward. But I'll miss the viewers. I still get a wonderful reception when I travel around Australia.'
Rowland fondly reflected on his time working in the Canberra press gallery in the 1990s, as a correspondent in Washington in the early 2000s and the 15 years he spent hosting ABC News Breakfast program.
Michael Rowland has announced he will be quitting the ABC to care for his sick wife
Mr Rowland with his wife Nicola Webber (pictured at a Melbourne event in December 2017)
The veteran presenter spent five years in the Canberra press gallery in the mid-1990s, reporting on the Paul Keating and John Howard prime ministerships
'I have been very fortunate since joining as a pimply cadet. I've had the chance to do pretty much everything — from the overnight shift monitoring police and fire brigades for radio news leads, to presenting various national TV programs,' he said. 'It has been a truly wonderful journey.'
Rowland, who shares two children with his wife Nicola, has previously spoke about how he always knew she was the one.
The couple met as political journalists when Rowland was a radio reporter for the ABC.
In an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly in 2020, Ms Webber spoke about how 'calm and steady' Rowland has helped support her over the years.
'My world before I met him was chaos, delightfully so, but he's the ballast in the ship for me,' she said. 'We balance each other. We make each other laugh. We frustrate each other as well. It sounds such a cliché – but we're a really good team.'
The family have had their fair share of health battles and have previously spoken about how they 'nearly lost' their son Tom at four-months-old due to unusual food allergies, and their daughter Eleanor was told she may have cancer at 18-months-old.
Rowland has also spoke about a freak accident he was involved in, aged 19, when he was hit in the eye with a slingshot by a stranger 'taking pot-shots at cars.'
'The pellet – an acorn – hit me directly in the eye. If I had been driving I probably wouldn't be here. It ricocheted off the back of my eye. I can still hear it,' he told The Weekly.
'It did have a big impact on how I viewed the world and how I thought the world viewed me. I was very self-conscious.'
