Longtime KNXV (Phoenix) Anchor Steve Irvin announced that today, the last day of the May book, will be his last day anchoring the news.

Irvin has a simple reason for why he is leaving. He didn’t want to die on the job.

He has dealt with some health issues and thinks it is time to walk away.

“I’ve been very honest about why,” he said. “It scared the crap out of me. I think it would scare the crap out of anybody, knowing you’re a ticking time bomb. You could have a heart attack at any point, and that’s it, you’re done. I didn’t want to die in the job.”

“At the end of the day, my priority is my health and having dinner with my wife,” Irvin said. “So those are the things that I really want to do, and I can do that. Those things were more important than reporting the news.

“They’ve always been more important than reporting the news, but at some point I felt like it was the right thing to do.”

He signs off tonight.

H/T AZ Central