Angela Rippon recalls former BBC boss demanding she 'make way for younger women' as she shares 'misogynistic' conversation

Olivia Gantzer
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:56:26 +0000

Angela Rippon has alleged that former BBC Director-General John Birt made sexist comments to her when she was 50, suggesting she should step aside for younger female broadcasters.

Speaking in a recent interview, the veteran presenter recalled Mr Birt's remarks.

She remembered him stating: "Angela I think you have to accept that you've had your day and it's time to make way for the younger women coming up behind you."

Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, the 81-year-old described the remark as "misogynistic" and challenged the former BBC chief, who led the corporation between 1992 and 2000.

Ms Rippon acknowledged that younger women were indeed entering the industry but questioned why the same expectations were not applied to her male counterparts of similar or greater age.

The confrontation with Mr Birt arose after Ms Rippon had been removed from two significant programmes she was presenting at the time.

According to the broadcaster, a departmental controller had taken her off the shows. She understood from producers that this individual simply did not rate her screen presence and had decided to drop her.

Having lost these presenting roles, Ms Rippon approached Mr Birt, whom she knew slightly, to seek assistance.

"I went to see him and said 'look I'm having these problems, what can you as the director general do about it?'" she recalled.

Rather than offering support, Mr Birt responded that he could not intervene and instead suggested her time in television had passed, urging her to clear the path for the next generation of female presenters.

When confronted with this advice, Ms Rippon challenged the Director-General directly on his apparent double standards.

She questioned whether Mr Birt was delivering the same message to male broadcasters who were considerably older than her, naming Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson as examples.

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"I remember at the time asking him if he was having the same conversation with Terry Wogan or Michael Parkinson and reeled off men who were a lot older than me, and of course he wasn't," she said.

By highlighting these established male presenters who continued working well into their later years without facing similar pressure to retire, Ms Rippon demonstrated what she saw as clear gender discrimination in how the BBC treated its on-screen talent during that era.

Reflecting on the encounter decades later, Ms Rippon described Mr Birt's words as not only sexist but also proved entirely wrong by subsequent events.

"It was a very misogynistic thing to say and as it turned out it was a very inaccurate thing to say as I am now 81 and I'm still here," she stated.

The broadcaster noted that more women have continued to enter television presenting since that time, with their numbers growing each year.

However, her enduring presence on screen serves as a pointed rebuttal to the suggestion that she should have stepped aside more than three decades ago.

Ms Birt served as BBC Director-General from 1992 until 2000, a period during which Rippon was told her career had reached its natural conclusion.