Entertainment reporter Brooke Boney has dropped a bombshell on Nine’s Today, declaring she is quitting breakfast TV to chase a long-held dream.

On Friday, the proud Gamilaroi woman announced she would leave the show after the Paris Olympics.

Describing it as “good-slash-bad news”, Boney said she had been accepted to study at Britain’s Oxford University next year.

“It’s been a dream of mine to be able to study at an overseas university and it just felt like the right time to take that step,” she said.

“I’m so grateful to come in here every day and I love you all so much. So it’s made the decision really difficult but it just means that you all have to plan trips to the UK.”

Boney said she would study a masters’ of public policy, as that is “what fits best with my journalistic career thus far”.

“I thought if I don’t do this now, then I’m probably never going to. I am at that age where if I leave now and go and study and come back, I’ll still only be 38,” she said.

Tweet from @TheTodayShow

Later on Friday, on Today Extra, Boney said she was overwhelmed after making the announcement and the “lovely messages” of support that had flowed in.

Boney worked at Triple J, SBS and NITV before moving to the Nine Network in 2019.

As well as missing her colleagues on the news desk, Boney said she will miss those working behind the scenes of Today.

“We wake up and try to make other people happy and informed. I always joke and say if you’re not learning, you’re laughing. I think that’s true, that’s definitely what we do on set and behind the scenes, is we have a really good time,” she said according to Nine.

“We take the job so seriously. It’s such an important part of people’s day, getting them up to go to work or school or wherever they’ve got to go during the day.”

On Instagram, Boney thanked everyone for the support and promised to save all the “teary stuff” for when she leaves in September. She did appear to get emotional when she admitted to mixed emotions about departing the show.

‘My head is spinning right now. My heart’s beating really fast,’ she said.

Boney’s co-hosts also seemed to get her a little choked up.

“You know what? It’s a big deal to break away from something as secure as this,” Karl Stefanovic said.

“To make your dreams come true and then to take that step to bite it off is a testament to you as a person and says everything about you.”

“So proud of us,” Sarah Abo.

The rising star will still be part of Nine’s team to cover the upcoming Olympics in July. And she hasn’t ruled out a return to TV in the future.

“I’d love to be able to come back and still do things with Nine and figure out what that looks like,” she said.