BBC News presenter Joanna Gosling apologised on-air after becoming overwhelmed with emotion while announcing the “moving” news that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is “heading to Tehran airport and on her way home”.

British-Iranian mother Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is about to leave Iran where she has been in custody since 2016, her MP Tulip Siddiq has said.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori are believed to be heading to Tehran airport in a bid to leave the country.

While announcing the breaking story on BBC news, presenter Gosling was visibly overcome with emotion.

The broadcast journalist, 51, said: “Sorry, this is a moving moment because these are people who have been detained for some time.

“Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held for nearly six years in Iran and her husband has worked tirelessly to secure her release.”

Last October, husband Richard Ratcliffe began a second hunger strike in two years outside the Foreign Office in London due to the Government’s “inaction and failure” in its handling of his wife’s case.

TV presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell and BBC broadcaster Claudia Winkleman visited Mr Ratcliffe on day nine of his hunger strike, which he started after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with his daughter Gabriella during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London (Ian West/PA)

Coren Mitchell, who is a family neighbour and was a vocal advocate for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, said the news was “overwhelming”.

In a statement on Twitter, she added: “All I want to say is that this is an inspirational family: the heroic Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin and Gabriella, and their wider family in England, Wales and Iran, have a strength and bravery that is beyond words.

“They are showing the world the power of hope, faith and effort.

“Also Tulip Siddiq has been a phenomenal constituency MP. God bless all of them.”

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in custody in the country since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

She was taking her daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison shortly afterwards, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest.

Last March, Mr Ratcliffe and the pair’s then six-year-old daughter Gabriella stood in protest outside Iran’s London embassy, holding pictures and a sign that said “help us free Nazanin”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said negotiations about Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe were “moving forward” but “going right up to the wire”.

But there is still nervousness in Whitehall about the ongoing situation, with sources stressing the pair will not be free until they are actually on a plane out of Iran.