Ken Bruce has 'absolutely' no ill will towards BBC Radio 2

Ken Bruce has “absolutely” no ill will towards the BBC.

The former BBC Radio 2 DJ recently departed the public broadcaster for a new adventure at Greatest Hits Radio after 45 years, and the star admitted he wanted to take on a new challenge rather than go through a "slow decline".

After being asked by Lorraine Kelly if he and the BBC had any “hard feelings” on her ITV1 chat show ’Lorraine’, the 72-year-old broadcaster said: “Absolutely not”.

Lorraine deemed it “great” that he decided on a new frontier professionally.

The 63-year-old presenter said: “You know, I think it's great you wanted to have a challenge."

Ken responded: "That's right, there is a time in your life where you say, 'Do I keep on doing this forever and ever and watch a slow decline?'

"Or, do you give yourself a kick up the backside and try something new.

"I mean, it's not brand new because I'm more or less doing the same thing, but it's a different environment and a commercial station which I've never worked on before.

"So it will be a little challenge but enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes."

This exchange comes after Ken labelled it "unnecessary" for the BBC to have given him an early send-off from his long-standing gig.

He told the Daily Mail newspaper: "That was disappointing. I thought, 'Come on, you can trust me. I’m not going to do a Dave Lee Travis' [referring to the ex-BBC DJ who resigned on air in 1993]. I’m not going to start badmouthing everybody because I had a lovely time at the BBC. So it was all a bit ... unnecessary."