The entire BBC board considered quitting in the wake of the Hutton Report, Mr Greg Dyke revealed today.
The former director-general said he urged them not to resign because it would leave the BBC with no one in charge.
Mr Dyke also indicated he did not want to leave but had lost the confidence of the BBC governors.
Speaking on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost he said: "(The governors) discussed whether they should all go. I urged them not to all go, you can't have a BBC with nobody there."
He said he had told the governors he could not continue in his job without their confidence.
"At that stage I left the room. An hour or so later I discovered they decided to suggest I leave. I had offered it, that was it."
Mr Dyke also cast fresh doubts on the British government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
He said the government said the tapes of Newsnight reporter Ms Susan Watts's interview with Dr Kelly were "fine".
"If they are fine, how does the government justify producing that dossier?"
He also laid into Lord Hutton saying he did not understand the law. Lord Hutton had "got it wrong" because he had argued the law did not allow the BBC to broadcast a story revealing Dr Kelly's concerns.
He said that was "a bit of a worry given that he was the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.
"One would expect him to understand the law," he said.
"If he is doing a media case he should go and read media law. He has got the law wrong."
He said if Lord Hutton's interpretation of the law was allowed to stand it would have "incredibly serious" implications for the media in dealing with whistle-blowers.
PA