Huw Edwards’ broadcasting career ends in disgrace

Huw Edwards was one of the most familiar and respected faces on British TV, but is now in disgrace after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

The former BBC News presenter’s admission at Westminster Magistrates‘ Court on Wednesday came three months after the former anchor resigned from the BBC on “medical advice”.

The presenter had been off air since July last year, when he was named as the star at the centre of different allegations, also involving explicit images.

His guilty plea marks the end of a career in broadcasting which has spanned more than 40 years.

He was known for his calm delivery of major news stories and was trusted by viewers.

Until last year, Edwards had been the BBC’s first choice to front coverage of major national events, including the 2019 general election and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Professor Tim Luckhurst, a former BBC executive, said there had been “the revelation of a dark side of which his colleagues were not aware”.

“This is a dark side which has emerged, which is clearly a criminal dark side,” he said.

“And the consequences will be very severe.

“But we’ve seen the downfall of a national figure, and we must recognise that dark side has been responsible for his fall.

“But that dark side was extremely well hidden.”

Edwards was born in Bridgend, Wales, and gained a first-class degree in French from the University of Wales, in Cardiff.

However, he began pursuing a career in media and landed his first job in broadcasting at commercial radio station Swansea Sound, reading the news in both English and Welsh.

He joined BBC News as a trainee in 1984 and eventually secured a job as political reporter for BBC Wales. Just two years later, he became BBC Wales’s parliamentary correspondent.

By the early 1990s, he was the BBC’s chief political correspondent at Westminster.

He became a regular face on the BBC News channel, then called BBC News 24, after it launched in 1997.

In its early days, the channel was plagued by technical difficulties, but Edwards gradually made a name for himself with his confident and level-headed delivery, which was said to have impressed BBC bosses.

At about the same time, Edwards was working as an occasional cover presenter on BBC One’s Six O’Clock News, one of the most-viewed television news bulletins in the UK, and became one of the programme’s main anchors in 1999.

Four years later, he was promoted to the Ten O’Clock News, widely seen as the BBC’s flagship bulletin, and was increasingly asked to present and commentate on major national events for the BBC.

They included the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (as they were known at the time) in 2011, the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh (2021), the Queen’s Diamond and Platinum Jubilee (2012 and 2022) and the coronation of King Charles (2023).

He was also on air when Nelson Mandela died in 2013, and co-hosted the results of the Brexit referendum in 2016.

But perhaps the most significant moment in Edwards’ presenting career came in September 2022, when he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II to the nation.

He had started his shift early that day following rumours of the monarch’s declining health, presenting rolling news coverage from 14:00, before confirming the Queen’s death that evening while wearing a black tie.

He went on to front coverage of the late Queen’s funeral. He was widely praised by viewers, and the coverage won Edwards and his colleagues a TRIC award.

As well as major royal events, Edwards had become the face of the BBC’s general election coverage, stepping into David Dimbleby’s shoes.

The Welsh broadcaster was one of the BBC’s top earners. In 2017, the first year the BBC was compelled by Parliament to publish the salaries of its star presenters, it was revealed Edwards made £550,000.

Following a flurry of negative headlines about the amount of money the BBC spent on top talent, and the disparity between some of its male and female stars, Edwards took a pay cut, and in 2023 his salary stood at £435,000.

However, the latest annual report, published in July, showed his salary rose again by £40,000 in the last financial year, despite him being off air for most of it.

Edwards made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, presenting a BBC News report on a fictionalised attack on the British intelligence service MI6.

In 2021, Edwards made a Welsh-language documentary about his career, during which he revealed he had suffered bouts of depression over 20 years, and had been left “bedridden” by his struggle with his mental health.

A distinguished career at the BBC was ultimately brought to an end after the Sun published allegations last summer that an unnamed BBC presenter had paid large sums of money for explicit images of an individual.

There were days of speculation about who the presenter might be and over the following days, the Sun, and later BBC News, released further allegations, keeping the story in the headlines.

Finally, on 13 July 2023, Edwards’ wife Vicky Flind confirmed his identity on his behalf, saying she was doing so “primarily out of concern for his mental well-being” and to protect their five children.

“Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues,” she said. “The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future.”

“Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published.”

He never made that statement.

Edwards was arrested in November on charges that are separate from the summer 2023 case.

The court was told on Wednesday that police had discovered the former newsreader was sent 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children, by another man on WhatsApp.

He hasn’t yet been sentenced.

His barrister said he was previously “of exceptional character” and had “both mental and physical” health issues.

But his guilty pleas mean his distinguished career, and his reputation, are in tatters.