Richard Keys has revealed his plans after leaving beIN Sports and Qatar at the end of the 2025/26 season, following reports that he may retire from the broadcasting industry.
Richard Keys comments on recent reports about his future (Image: beinSPORTS)
Richard Keyes has denied reports that he will retire from broadcasting after losing his job at beIN Sports after the season. Keys and his long-time partner Andy Gray will be leaving the Qatari broadcaster after 13 years, but their future plans have not yet been announced.
The presenter and pundit duo moved to the Middle Eastern country after scandalously leaving Sky Sports and the UK in 2011. He was forced to leave after a video leaked of him making sexist comments about assistant referee Sian Massey. The incident, which Keyes later claimed was a “setup” orchestrated by “dark forces” to get them ejected.
Keys, 68, and Gray, 70, have since found a new home in Qatar with beIN Sports, where they have been covering the channel’s Premier League coverage since 2013. However, last week it was revealed that beIN had decided not to renew the contract and instead decided to revamp the production for the 2026/27 season.
Keys is reported to be returning to the UK to live with his much younger partner Lucy Rose, whom he married in 2023. Meanwhile, it was suggested that Keys might retire from the broadcasting industry after his contract with beIN ends.
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However, he is currently denying the suggestion. At the end of his weekly blog on VAR and the Premier League, he added: “There was no friction between me and beINSPORTS. Qatar is a country that means the world to me. I loved every minute of my time there.”
“I have a deep love for it, but it’s time for me to move on. I’m not retiring, just changing direction. There’s still a lot more to come.”
According to the Telegraph, Keyes plans to live with his wife, who is 32 years his junior, when he returns to the UK. The couple had an affair while Keyes’ wife of 34 years was recovering from cancer, and ex-wife Julia filed for divorce in 2016. Keyes then said that Julia had been “in remission for seven years” when the marriage fell apart.
Richard Keys will marry Lucy Rose in 2023
However, as Julia wrote in her 2018 book The MANScript: “Richard’s affair has not only devastated my world, but also the world of our children Gemma and Josh. Only now, two years later, has he admitted to having had an affair with Lucy, and also admitted his deception and the damage it caused.”
The couple married in Devon three years ago and have been in a long-distance relationship ever since, with Keyes living in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
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