TOP TV news presenter Alex Lush has been axed - just two weeks before she is due to give birth.

Lush was due to leave BBC South Today on maternity leave on Friday, but instead BBC chiefs have terminated her contract.

It is the latest twist in a bitter row between BBC bosses and her husband James, who was a presenter for BBC Radio Solent.

Yesterday the Daily Echo revealed that he and colleague news presenter Richard Williams were axed after they started their own company.

Both were given their marching orders after the BBC said starting their own media training and consultancy company, called Great Beginnings, breached corporation guidelines.

Alex Lush and South Today anchorman Andrew Harvey were both due to become associates of the company. After BBC chiefs stepped in both Harvey and Alex Lush were told to sever links with the business.

But now it has been revealed that 27-year-old Alex Lush has been axed as presenter of BBC South Today's 9.30pm news bulletin.

It is a bitter blow to the couple who married in April and share a 100-year-old cottage near Winchester.

They both joined the BBC in Southampton four and a half years ago. Alex, who started on work experience, read the news on Radio Solent before moving across to television a year ago.

Last night the couple refused to comment on the move and were believed to be too upset.

James Lush merely said: "We do not want to say anything on the issue at this stage.''

A BBC spokeswoman refused to say why Alex Lush had left. "It is not appropriate to discuss our relationship with individual staff," she said.

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