I did it my way says Eamonn Holmes as he steps down from Sky breakfast show Sunrise to pursue "other dreams"

Holmes, 56, will front his last edition of Sunrise on Thursday 13th October and intends to use his freed up time to work on producing and presenting a number of unspecified documentary projects he has long been eyeing, saying it is a case of "now or never".

In a statement on his official Facebook page, he wrote: "Anchoring my own breakfast show for 11 years has been for me the stuff of boyhood dreams. It was the job I hoped to do as a young Belfast lad – and because of Sky News I got there!

"Forty five years plus on I have other dreams, and to achieve them I realise that unfortunately I need to step away from the daily studio commitment for a while. There is an addiction to a live breaking news studio environment. However, after more than 3,000 hours of programming it is a habit I have to suppress.

"Increasingly in life I have found myself in the fortunate position of having so much to do but little time to do it. This seems an opportune moment to change that.

"Going forward, I will now produce and present a number of documentary projects which I have been stalling for some time, as well as continuing my work with ITV and Channel 5. There is so much going on and I realised it was now or never..."

Holmes also took time to thanks colleagues and viewers for their support, writing "I cannot stress how hard it is saying goodbye to such a programme and the friends and colleagues who I have met over the years because of it – but nothing stays the same – nor should it...

"To those who have worked or woken up with me on Sky News over the years – thank you. I hope you appreciated that I tried to do it differently."