Behind the scenes of BBC Breakfast in recent days, there have been plenty of smiles.

Mainly on the faces of the programme’s editor Richard Frediani and his ‘boys’ club’ – since they learned that long-time presenter Naga Munchetty, who earned a salary of £364,999 in her role, was to leave after 17 years on the sofa.

For Frediani, who was temporarily suspended last year following allegations of bullying, had finally won the war against Naga.

In the end, sources tell me, it was an ultimatum for BBC bosses between keeping the presenter or her editor, nicknamed ‘Fredi’.

Their feud, which began when Frediani joined the breakfast programme in 2019, worsened after Naga was seen to be standing up for lower-ranking staff as she watched them being belittled and ‘trampled over’ by Team Frediani.

But while the editor was reportedly widely despised by his junior troop, he was ‘well in’ with the top brass.

Indeed, it was announced yesterday that Naga, 51, is moving to Radio 5 Live where she will host the breakfast show for five days a week. Frediani remains in post.

It has not been an easy few years for the BBC Breakfast show, which Naga co-hosted with Charlie Stayt. Naga’s departure follows an internal investigation in 2025 into her behaviour, also concerning complaints of bullying, over a three-year period.

Naga moved this week to Radio 5 Live where she will host the breakfast show five days a week, departing from BBC Breakfast after a seven-year feud with the programme’s editor, Frediani

She was accused of bullying a female colleague and making a ‘wildly unprofessional’ off-air sex joke that left a co-worker ‘humiliated’. Following the investigation, Naga remained in her job at the BBC.

Meanwhile, in 2020 I first revealed that less than a year into his reign as editor, Frediani had been accused of bullying his staff.

For years since I have heard from staff complaining about his alleged behaviour and, in June 2025, it was said that he had taken an extended period of leave after an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations was opened.

While Naga was cleared, the sight of her boss also returning to the show after his own investigation – in which at least one complaint was upheld – was, I’m told, ‘untenable’ for her.

‘It was a war zone at Breakfast and Naga lost her battle with the man in charge, her own boss, who didn’t seem to like being taken on,’ one BBC insider told me, shortly after the news of her new role was made public by the Radio Five Live press office.

‘[Naga] was a far more interesting story than Fredi – he didn’t make headlines, she did. Reams of headlines appeared making her out to be a total monster – but “scapegoat” is probably more accurate.

‘At the end of the day, there wasn’t a smoking gun to sack Naga but it’s for the best she doesn’t host Breakfast any more, it was all getting very tricky for everyone involved.

‘What absolutely hasn’t gone unnoticed among Naga’s gang is that the woman has gone, the man is still in situ. Classic. We’ve had Jermaine Jenas texting women filthy, sexual messages, MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace treated junior staff abhorrently and Wynne Evans used the vilest sexual terms in the workplace, yet look at the abuse Naga got.’

Naga has her critics and in the past 18 months since reports of her alleged behaviour have come to light, I’ve heard a mixed bag of insider reports, writes Katie Hind

Of course, Naga has her critics and in the past 18 months since reports of her alleged behaviour have come to light, I’ve heard a mixed bag of insider reports.

Last year, when her co-star Sally Nugent showed off her ‘glow-up’ which became something of a national talking point, it was claimed that Naga made a nasty comment about her sidekick’s new look.

‘We’re meant to be serious journalists, not trying to look like we’re presenting This Morning,’ she supposedly told Sally.

And then there was Geri Halliwell-Horner, the former Spice Girl who found herself on the receiving end of Naga’s acidic tongue during a live interview in which the host pointed her finger at the singer. The BBC later apologised.

Then came ‘toast-gate’ when Naga reportedly reprimanded a BBC Breakfast intern for incorrectly spreading Marmite on her toast and also complained that it ‘needed to be a little bit burnt, but not too much’.

‘A lot of what Naga does is in jest, some of it isn’t,’ says my BBC source. ‘The perception, frankly, is that she is nasty but a lot of this is her manner and often for show.

‘She will take no s***, that was part of the problem.’

BBC insiders describe Naga’s new job, which will begin in January next year, as ‘a great one’.

They also point out that she will be hosting it alone, and, unlike Breakfast on television, it will be five days a week instead of three. Nor will she host the show on a Saturday as she did on BBC Breakfast.

BBC insiders describe Naga’s new job, which begins in January next year, as ‘a great one’. They also point out that she will be hosting it alone, and it will be five days a week instead of three

Naga may also be able to host some shows from London rather than be in Salford full-time, meaning that she will be closer to her home in Dulwich, south-east London.

However, in a statement released yesterday, Naga carefully worded her comments about her exit, giving no mention of her fallout with her former editor.

She said: ‘It has been a privilege to be part of the BBC Breakfast TV team for the past 17 years, working alongside an incredibly talented and hard-working group of journalists who are not only outstanding colleagues but also great friends.

‘Presenting a flagship programme on 5 Live is an opportunity that was simply too good to pass up. It will take a huge amount of work and require 100 per cent of my focus and energy, and I’m really looking forward to throwing myself into the role.’

Later in the day, she shared the news on BBC Radio 5 Live where she told the channel’s listeners that she was ‘very excited’ to join the flagship show. ‘Change is as good as a rest,’ she giggled but, again, she kept schtum on the chaos behind the scenes at Breakfast.

There has been no word from Frediani over her departure but John McAndrew, the BBC’s director of live and daily news, paid tribute to Naga, writing that she will be ‘hugely missed by the millions of viewers who’ve welcomed her into their homes each week’.

So far there has been no word from Charlie Stayt, Naga’s long-serving co-anchor who has often been on the end of her snarling eye rolls and sarcastic comments.

There is no suggestion yet that he is likely to follow Naga off the red Breakfast sofa.

‘He tried his best not to get involved in it all, he’s basically Switzerland – neutral,’ a source told me.

‘He is beloved by the rank and file but has not many allies in the creepy mid-management class but he loved Naga really and enjoyed the sport of hosting with her. Even he will miss her.’