Kate Ritchie in talks for huge radio show change

The radio host, who is currently on an extended break from her Nova show, is in talks for a huge career change at the network.

Kate Ritchie has been on a months-long break from her Nova radio show to focus on her health.

But it seems the 44-year-old co-host has also been weighing up a career change during her hiatus, with reports she is in talks to jump over to the network’s Sydney breakfast show, Fitzy & Wippa.

The Australian’s Media Diary reports Ritchie, who stepped back from her duties on Nova’s national drive show Kate, Tim & Joel in October, is entertaining the idea of working alongside Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli.

Fitzy & Wippa could be welcoming Kate Ritchie to their show.

Ritchie is said to be in talks to join the duo on the breakfast show. Picture: Supplied

While there’s been no formal announcement, Ritchie – who had co-hosted the national drive timeslot since 2014 – said in mid-January that she’d be back on-air with Joel Creasey and Tim Blackwell in “a few more weeks”.

She is yet to return, with former Australian Idol star Ricki-Lee Coulter currently filling in.

Nova’s move to reposition Ritchie may help explain the absence of long-serving Fitzy & Wippa co-host Sarah McGilvray, who has been conspicuously absent for the past two weeks.

Tim Blackwell, Kate Ritchie and Joel Creasey for the Kate, Tim and Marty show on Nova radio. Picture: Supplied

Ritchie stunned listeners back in October when she revealed she’d be stepping away from the show for a break after a “hectic” year.

“As some of you may have heard from me on the show today, this past year has been hectic for my family and I. I have had much change, like many of you, in a short space of time and it has taken its toll,” Ritchie wrote on social media.

“So I’ve made the decision to take a short break to have more time for myself and my family to re-energise.”

Ritchie’s break wasn’t entirely restful, however. She publicly called out the Daily Mail before Christmas over what she described as a “shocking invasion of privacy” when they published paparazzi photos of her outside a mental health facility.

Kate has been enjoying some time off, where she got treatment for mental health issues.

“I decided to use this time to do something positive by getting the help I need from professionals who specialise in this area,” Ritchie wrote on Instagram.

“As everyone would understand, this is a very big step for me to take.

“It is a shocking invasion of my privacy that the Daily Mail, through their unrelenting stalking of me, has forced me to issue this public statement, in their blatant attempt to publicly shame me on a private health matter.”