![\"ASIO](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3c62a8fdbbf9ccdf00915a7d011fc0db.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nABC presenter Michael Rowland issued a heartbreaking statement on Monday morning, announcing he has quit the broadcaster after 39 years to care for his sick wife, Nicola Webber.<\/p>\n
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the 57-year-old said his decision to leave was \u201cbittersweet\u201d but that he knew now \u201cis the right time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 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 said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bittersweet. I know this is the right decision for me, my family and my life going forward. But I\u2019ll miss the viewers. I still get a wonderful reception when I travel around Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowland, who joined ABC in 1987, confirmed he will present his final broadcast on Friday.<\/p>\n
Rowland was just 18 when he joined ABC, beginning his career as a news cadet and then progressing into political and financial correspondent roles.<\/p>\n
In the early 2000s, Rowland became ABC\u2019s North America correspondent in Washington, fronting coverage for the election of Barack Obama and the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Rowland began his 15-year tenure as the co-host of ABC News Breakfast<\/a>, where he worked alongside the likes of Virginia Trioli and Lisa Millar<\/a>.<\/p>\n He met his beloved wife in the early 2000s when they were both working as political journalists in Canberra.<\/p>\n They tied the knot in 2002 and share two children, Tom, 22, and Eleanor, 21.<\/p>\n In a joint interview back in 2020, Michael and Nicola shared a rare insight into their enduring love story.<\/p>\n \u201cI still look forward to seeing him every day,\u201d Nicola told Woman’s Day.<\/p>\n \u201cI operate on a much faster orbit than he does. Michael goes at Michael\u2019s pace. He\u2019s very calm and steady. My world before I met him was chaos, delightfully so, but he\u2019s the ballast in the ship for me.<\/p>\n \u201cWe balance each other. We make each other laugh. We frustrate each other as well. It sounds such a clich\u00e9 \u2013 but we\u2019re a really good team.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowland did not share further details of his wife’s illness, but the family have been plagued by a number of health issues over the years.<\/p>\n He previously spoke about how they “nearly lost” their son Tom when he was just four-months-old due to an “unusual food allergy”. He was also diagnosed as legally blind in one eye, but his sight improved after undergoing treatment.<\/p>\n They were also told that their daughter, Eleanor, may have had cancer when she was 18-months-old.<\/p>\n Thankfully, Eleanor was cancer-free, but Nicola said the ordeal was still “scary”.<\/p>\n Following Rowland’s announcement, fans and colleagues have flooded his Instagram page with messages of support.<\/p>\n “Congratulations Michael on everything you have achieved. Always the professional that you are. Thank you for being my friend and I look forward to catching up again soon,” Peter Hitchener said.<\/p>\n “Huge decision, huge congrats. The outside world awaits,” comedian Sammy J added, while Troy Cassar-Daley wrote: “Mate will miss you and well done on a wonderful career so far, take care.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC presenter Michael Rowland issued a heartbreaking statement on Monday morning, announcing he has quit the broadcaster after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2655,250579,64,63,134,250480,427],"class_list":["post-497926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abc","tag-abc-breakfast","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-michael-rowland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}