Vanessa Feltz announces she's leaving BBC Radio 2

Vanessa Feltz has announced she is leaving her early breakfast show on BBC Radio 2, which she has presented for more than a decade.

The broadcaster said she had "loved every moment with my Radio 2 'Early Birds'", and would miss her "beloved" listeners and colleagues.

But, she said she had to step down "to catch up on a much needed decade's deficit of beauty sleep".

Feltz will present her final early breakfast show on Friday.

After a two week break, she will then cover Jeremy Vine's show for a fortnight as planned, from 15 August.

Her last day of covering Vine, on 26 August, will be her final day at BBC Radio 2.

Feltz said: "I will enjoy a dollop of energy-boosting shut-eye to swing from zip-lines with my three effervescent grandchildren and frolic with my fiancé Ben, who irritatingly remains ten years younger than me!"

Feltz is one of the highest-paid presenters at the BBC, earning more than £400,000 for hosting two daily radio shows on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio London.

Speaking on the Radio 2 breakfast show after Feltz announced her departure, Zoe Ball described her fellow presenter as "always glamorous and quite possibly the cleverest person I know".

Ball said: "I'm not going to lie, we are all in tears at Radio 2. She's always been outrageous and the hardest working lass.

"Wherever she goes next, whatever she does, she will be golden at it and be very lucky to have her. We will give her the bumps at some point."