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February 2, 2026 — 2:48pm
ABC Sydney radio presenter James Valentine has retired from the broadcaster as he continues to battle cancer, saying it was time for a fresh host to “have a go at this marvellous shift” in the afternoons.
“It’s time to go,” he told the station’s listeners in a pre-recorded segment on Monday afternoon, after decades with the ABC.
The veteran broadcaster, who has been off-air for six months battling omentum cancer, returned to the airwaves on Monday during fill-in host James O’Loughlin’s show.
“It’s James Valentine here back in Afternoons, how comfy that feels. Look, I do have an announcement to make, and it’s, it’s sad news. It’s definitely sad for me,” Valentine said.
“I won’t be coming back this year to the microphone and to the Afternoons program. It’s time for me to retire. This decision has been hard for me to make, but look, I think my health is giving me a pretty clear message that it still might be a while until I could return and resume broadcasting.”
Valentine first told listeners of his oesophageal cancer diagnosis in early 2024, taking an extended leave of absence for surgery.
He made a recovery and was back on air in August that year, but one year later, he announced another break of three months after a second cancer diagnosis – omentum cancer – in June.
The omentum, which Valentine told listeners to Google, is a small part of the body below the stomach.
He has been off-air since, undergoing both immunotherapy treatment and chemotherapy.
Valentine said it was time for someone else to host the program. “Come and have a go at this marvellous shift and do what you can with it, do what you will with it,” he said.
More to come.
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