{"id":508584,"date":"2026-04-02T07:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/508584\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:55:09","slug":"carol-kirkwood-why-the-time-is-right-for-me-to-retire-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/508584\/","title":{"rendered":"Carol Kirkwood: Why the time is right for me to retire &#8211; and what&#8217;s next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At 2:45am, much of the country is fast asleep &#8211; but for nearly three decades that&#8217;s when Carol Kirkwood&#8217;s day has begun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Now, after leaving the BBC this week, the early alarm is the first thing she&#8217;s ready to leave behind &#8211; it&#8217;s &#8220;well and truly going in the bin&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It marks the end of an era, not just for Kirkwood, but for millions of viewers who have watched her present the weather forecast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She has been the main weather presenter on BBC Breakfast since 2010, having started her BBC presenting career on the news channel. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Reflecting on her 28 years at the corporation, she tells us the biggest privilege was presenting the weather out in the field because &#8220;you meet members of the public who are always so lovely and kind to me&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Although it&#8217;s &#8220;impossible to pinpoint one standout moment&#8221;, reporting from events such as the Wimbledon tennis championships and Chelsea Flower Show were some of her highlights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve reported from so many beautiful places and visited a lot of the country that I might not otherwise have seen,&#8221; she adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 2:45am, much of the country is fast asleep &#8211; but for nearly three decades that&#8217;s when Carol&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-508584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}