Sue Barker: BBC could have handled my exit from Question of Sport better

Sue Barker says the BBC could have "handled better" her departure as host of game show Question of Sport.

Barker presented the quiz program for 24 years, but left in 2020 when the BBC decided to rename the show.

He then replaced her with Paddy McGuinness, with longtime captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell also eliminated.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Barker suggested that the company wanted her to say she was backing down from her own choice, rather than being replaced.

The 66-year-old former professional tennis player, who has just released her autobiography Calling the Shots, said: "They [BBC] wanted to refresh the program and that's absolutely fine.

"So we knew this was coming and it was just the way it happened and the way how it was handled, and the way I think the BBC wanted me to say I was walking away from it.

"And yet I wouldn't leave Never a job I loved. I didn't mind being replaced. Absolutely fine. It happens. But that was just the way it was handled.

"I think if we think about it we could have managed better. I think the BBC could have handled it better."

In her book, Barker said she "categorically refused" to put her name on a statement the BBC wrote for her saying she had decided to step down. She wrote that the experience had left her "slightly damaged".

Barker quit as Wimbledon presenter