Departing ABC presenter Michael Rowland has clarified questions over his wife’s health, just hours after he announced he was quitting the network after 39 years.

On Monday, Rowland announced he’d be finishing up at the national broadcaster this week to spend more time with his wife Nicola ‘who has been unwell over the last year or so’.

In an Instagram post on Monday afternoon, Rowland shared a recent picture of the couple and clarified he wasn’t leaving his job to care for her.

‘Thanks, by the way, for all the lovely messages to my wife, Nicki. Some of the headlines today have suggested she is at death’s door,’ he said.

‘Yes, Nicki has been unwell over the last year or so but is well and truly bouncing back. Proof of life from a wedding in Warrnambool on Saturday!’

Rowland joined the ABC as an 18-year-old cadet journalist in January 1987.

The veteran presenter, who will finish up at the ABC on Friday, described his time at the national broadcaster as a ‘great ride’.

‘It’s just the right time for my family and friends to step back from full-time work and move on to the next stage of life,’ he said.

Michael Rowland has clarified questions over his wife Nicola’s ill health after announcing he was quitting the ABC

Rowland, whose worked at the ABC since 1987, will finish up at the broadcaster on Friday

‘It’s bittersweet. I know this is the right decision for me, my family and my life going forward. But I’ll miss the viewers. I still get a wonderful reception when I travel around Australia.’

Rowland fondly reflected on his time working in the Canberra press gallery in the 1990s, as a correspondent in Washington in the early 2000s and the 15 years he spent hosting ABC News Breakfast program.

‘I have been very fortunate since joining as a pimply cadet. I’ve had the chance to do pretty much everything – from the overnight shift monitoring police and fire brigades for radio news leads, to presenting various national TV programs,’ he said.

Rowland, who shares two children with Nicola, has previously spoke about how he always knew she was the one.

The couple met as political journalists when Rowland was a radio reporter for the ABC.

In an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly in 2020, Ms Webber spoke about how ‘calm and steady’ Rowland has helped support her over the years.

‘My world before I met him was chaos, delightfully so, but he’s the ballast in the ship for me,’ she said.

‘We balance each other. We make each other laugh. We frustrate each other as well. It sounds such a cliché – but we’re a really good team.’