Tony Jones will resign from the ABC's Q&A before the end of the year.

The long-standing host of ABC’s Q&A will resign from his position before the end of the year, according to a report in The Australian.

Jones, who has hosted the panel show for over a decade, told the publication he will “reluctantly” step down, choosing to travel to China with his wife, fellow ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson, who has accepted a position as the ABC’S China bureau chief.

“I love doing Q&A,” Jones told The Australian. “But going to China is an ­opportunity that is too good to miss.”

Jones first launched Q&A in May 2008, with Kevin Rudd, who was Prime Minister at the time, as his first guest.

He said he wasn’t expecting to get a work visa in China, so will finish the novel he’s currently working on.

Virginia Trioli, who currently hosts ABC News Breakfast is the current favourite to replace Jones.

Listen to Mia Freedman’s No Filter interview with Sarah Ferguson. Post continues after audio. 

Speaking to Mia Freedman in 2016, Sarah Ferguson said when she first met Tony Jones in 1992, “It was a ‘there you are – I’ve been waiting for you’ moment”.

A year later, they were married.

Over two and a half decades later, they have three sons together.

“All we do is do our jobs in the best way we can, but I never regard us as a couple doing things,” Ferugson said. “I think media couples look really annoying. They’re not, but they look smug. They look pleased with themselves. And I think that’s deeply irritating to other people so I don’t want to be a couple. And also, our work is individual, and the fact that we both do it is just a coincidence.”

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