Chris Matthews is retiring and has mutually agreed to part ways with MSNBC, he announced during Monday’s night’s broadcast of Hardball.

The 74-year-old opened his talk show by announcing he was retiring, effective immediately. The news of his departure comes amid growing criticism of the host’s statements on Sen. Bernie Sanders, past comments about women, and African American lawmakers.

“I’m retiring,” Matthews said. “This is the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC.”

Following Matthews’ announcement, the show went to commercial and Matthews did not return. Instead, a stunned Steve Kornacki, a political reporter for the network, took over for the rest of the hour. “That was a lot to take in,” he said. Matthews had hosted “Hardball” on MSNBC since 1999 and went on to say he is not retiring due to a lack of love in the political realm.

“The younger generations out there are ready to take the reins,” he said.

Matthews also used the time to apologize to women for his past comments amid the article in GQ Magazine from journalist Laura Bassett who said Matthews “has a pattern of making comments about women’s appearances in demeaning ways”.

More recently, Matthews had made poor comments about Sanders, whose win in Nevada he compared to Nazis taking over France in World War II. He would later apologize for those comments and would not be on MSNBC’s coverage of the South Carolina Democratic Primary this past Saturday.

According to CNN, Matthews was asked by MSNBC to step down and the firing was masked as him resigning from his post as he cited retirement as the reason.

After a conversation with MSNBC, I decided tonight will be my last ‘Hardball,’ so let me tell you why,” he said. “The younger generation’s out there ready to take the reins. We see them in politics, in media, in fighting for their causes. They’re improving the workplace.”

There is no word yet on who will replace Matthews in his timeslot.