[5] During early life Humphrys had a bout of whooping cough and, concerned that he would be known as 'Dismal Desmond', his mother opted to use the name John.

[5] He then worked as a foreign correspondent, initially having to go abroad and leave his family for six-to-nine-month periods at a time when his children were still young and growing up.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in January 2001 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel while presenting an edition of On The Record at the BBC Television Centre.

[13][14] He became the programme's fourth regular host, succeeding Magnus Magnusson, Peter Snow and Clive Anderson.

Humphrys is an agnostic, but has said that he has a curiosity to test his agnosticism and challenge established religions to see if they can restore his childhood belief in God.

In 2006, he presented a BBC Radio 4 programme, titled Humphrys in Search of God, in which he spoke to leading British authorities on Christianity, Judaism and Islam in order to try to restore his faith.

[16] On 3 January 2011, Humphrys announced that he had extended his contract to present the Today programme, but in doing so had agreed to a pay cut.

[18] In the interview, Entwistle admitted he was unaware of a Newsnight investigation which wrongly accused a senior Conservative figure of child abuse until after it was broadcast.

[19] The report came about during the unfolding of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, which was also considered a factor that contributed to Entwistle's resignation.

He highlighted failings in coverage of the issues of Europe and immigration, stating: "We weren't sufficiently sceptical – that's the most accurate phrase – of the pro-European case.

He hosted his final edition on 19 September, when his interviewees were Tony Blair, Dame Edna Everage and David Cameron.

[23][24][7] On 6 February 2021, in his Daily Mail column, Humphrys announced he would leave his position on Mastermind after 18 years of hosting the programme.

I was not particularly happy with the splash [the headline] the Mail used, but you know… I don't give a flying fuck whether people think that a particular newspaper is biased in this way or that way.

saying that he has always read the Daily Mail simply because it reaches an awful lot of people, and that it may not always be compatible with his own views, but said that he also thinks the same about The Guardian, which hosted the interview.

"[7] Humphrys married Edna Wilding (August 1942 – September 1997) in 1964 and they had two children, a son and daughter, Christopher and Catherine.

[5] Wilding died of cancer in Glamorgan, South Wales; Humphrys described her last days in a hospice in his book Devil's Advocate (2000).

[36] In December 2013, Humphrys was featured in an episode of the BBC Wales series Coming Home where it was revealed that their great-grandmother, Sarah Willey, had been a resident at the Cardiff workhouse and that their paternal great-grandfather was from Finland.

[37] Humphrys is a keen listener to classical music[38] and was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs on 6 January 2008.