‘I said goodbye on my laptop, that was it’: Matt Baker admits he had a VERY abrupt farewell to former colleagues on The One Show as he discusses his new life on family farm
Matt Baker has admitted he had a very abrupt goodbye to his former The One Show colleagues when he left the series last year.
The TV presenter, 43, had hosted the BBC chat show for nine years alongside Alex Jones before he quit in March 2020, having since focused on his family farm.
With the UK in lockdown when he left, Matt admitted there were no goodbye parties or big send offs for him and instead he simply shut his laptop and was done.
Honest: Matt Baker has admitted he had a very abrupt goodbye to his former The One Show colleagues when he left the series last year
Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of This Morning, host Phillip Schofield said: ‘There was no party, no big goodbye, you just said goodbye on your laptop, shut the laptop and were gone?’
Matt replied: ‘Yeah I did. It was propped up on an ironing board, it is a year to the day that I left, strangely [my new] show going out exactly a year later. I said goodbye on my laptop, that was it.’
The presenter has since worked on his family’s farm which is documented on the new Channel 4 four part series Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales.
Asked if he misses The One Show, Matt replied: ‘Everybody’s lives have turned on their head completely. Coming out of a hibernation stage, this is my life, I love it, it makes me who I am.
Co-hosts: The TV presenter, 43, had hosted the BBC chat show for nine years alongside Alex Jones before he quit in March 2020, having since focused on his family farm
Goobye! Matt had his last day on The One Show from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic
‘This is me and this is my life. I think people will accept the way that I am when they watch it.’
Matt moved with his wife Nicola and their children Luke, 12, and Molly, 10, back to the Durham Dales after his mother injured her leg while tending sheep and he has been helping to run the farm ever since.
He explained: ‘It was quite an eventful few months – this programme, I never pitched it just evolved into the situation we found ourselves in because of my mum’s accident.
‘At heart, it’s not a farming programme, it’s the moment your life table’s turn and you start looking after parents the way they looked after you.’
Chat: With the UK in lockdown when he left, Matt admitted there were no goodbye parties or big send offs for him and instead he simply shut his laptop and was done
Change: The presenter has since worked on his family’s farm which is documented on the new Channel 4 four part series Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales
It wasn’t the biggest of changes for Matt who told how he always juggled farming work with his job on The One Show.
He said: ‘I would be doing The One Show, cleaning muck off, then going into George Clooney or people like that.’
Asked what his future plans are, the star said: ‘Keep doing country farm and presenting, time freed up from The One Show I want to spend in production and programmes.
Addressing This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby, he added: ‘I am passionate about that. You know Holly back in day, children’s TV, all there. It is a passion that I want to keep doing.’
Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales airs Wednesday March 31 on Channel 4 at 9pm.
Show: Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales airs Wednesday March 31 on Channel 4 at 9pm