Eggheads legend leaves show after 19 years
She confirmed her retirement from the game show
Last updated 10th Oct 2022
Longtime Eggheads panelist Judith Keppel has announced that she is leaving the popular game show after 19 years, and revealed her reason for choosing to go.
She revealed her decision to retire from the Channel 5 show while speaking to Metro, where she explained: "I love doing it, but I have done it for 19 years and my memory is definitely not what it was.
"I have done it for 19 years and I’m quite old. I had a sort of horrible decade birthday the other day, and I have noticed that I can’t learn as well as I did. So I just thought it was time to go."
Speaking about being on the show since it started in 2003, she added: "Because it’s a game, we all get on very well. I love all the behind-the-scenes stuff, and make-up and wardrobe and all that. I mean, it’s just great fun, the whole thing, it’s been great fun."
Before she was on Eggheads, Judith proved her quiz skills when she appeared on and won Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2000. She became the first person in the UK to win the show and is still the only woman to have won the big prize on the UK version of the series.
Host Jeremy Vine acknowledged Judith's departure from Eggheads while promoting the start of the new series, sharing a video of the cast behind the scenes. He wrote: 'NEW SERIES of @eggheadsTV TONIGHT @channel5_tv has a sad moment at the start as we bid a fond goodbye to 19-year veteran, Millionaire Judith Keppel! Can't resist this opportunity to watch her again in Firestarter along with the others (and RIP @daverainy1968 ❤️)'.
The 80-year-old also revealed what she is going to miss most about being on Eggheads, saying: "I think what I'll funnily enough miss is having to concentrate, because it was very good for me in that I started reading the papers, concentrating hard.
"Now, of course, I cast away any sports pages there are – don’t have to do that, don’t have to read about pop music or anything like that. So I’m going to get very out of touch with kind of popular stuff, I think. And I probably won’t concentrate like I used to."
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Eggheads continues on Channel 5 and you can catch up on previous episodes on My5.
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