Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway fight tears during host’s final Good Morning Britain show

Shephard will soon head up ‘This Morning’ with Cat Deeley

Ben Shephard has said goodbye to Good Morning Britain with an emotional final show, ahead of joining This Morning.

The morning TV staple figure was announced as the new presenter of This Morning alongside Cat Deeley last week, after months of speculation following the departures of former hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

Friday (23 February) marked Shephard’s last time hosting the ITV breakfast programme ahead of his new role, and many of his longtime colleagues were in the studio to wish him well.

Familiar GMB faces such as Richard Arnold, Charlotte Hawkins, Andi Peters, Alex Beresford all joined Shephard and Kate Garraway to share some heartfelt tributes – many of which left Shephard fighting back tears.

Garraway, who most regularly presented with Shephard, pre-empted her tribute by saying that she wouldn’t say much in case it makes her cry.

“You’re an incredible person, an incredible friend,” she began. “You’re an incredible broadcaster, and anyone that works with you loves you.

“But I’m going to miss you. It’s been a very long time. I won’t say any more. But we know that you’re going to be fantastic and we all know that we’re also going to be in your life as friends.”

Signing off, Shephard reflected on how much he’d miss working with the GMB presenting team.

Ben Shephard on Good Morning Britain (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock )

“The alarm going off has never been anything I’ve enjoyed. But what I have known is as soon as I get in here, I’m going to be surrounded by you brilliant, incredible, gorgeous, talented, challenging, chaotic, fabulous people that make me better at what I do,” Shephard told his colleagues.

“It’s not lost on me that I wouldn’t be able to do if you lot weren’t amazing and hadn’t been such fabulous friends and colleagues.”

Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway (Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

After paying tribute to the crew and other GMB staff members behind the cameras, Shephard also thanked the viewers for “trusting me to wake you up in the morning with this amazing team”.

“I can only cope with this because I know I’m not going very far. These guys are going to carry on doing an incredible job, and I’m going to get a lie in. But in a couple of weeks, I will be able to welcome you back from school run, whatever your morning routine is, with a cup of tea and chat next door.”

Shephard and Deeley’s first episode as This Morning’s lead hosts will air in the coming weeks.