A career spanning 40 years as a journalist, Huw Edwards is one of the most familiar faces on our TV screens. He was the one to deliver the news that Queen Elizabeth had died. He led the coverage of her funeral as well as the new King's Coronation earlier this year.
As a Welsh man with a strong Welsh accent, he achieved the "impossible" and made his mark on an English news channel. He has led the News at Ten for years, and made his way to being the highest paid news presenter across the whole of the BBC, and the fifth highest paid TV presenter with a massive £410,000 yearly salary.
But tonight his wife Vicky Flind, in a statement issued on his behalf, named him as the BBC presenter at the centre of allegations relating to sexually explicit images of a young person.
Allegations that a BBC presenter had paid a young person £35,000 for sexually explicit images, which started when they were just 17, were first published by the Sun on Friday, July 7.
In her statement, Vicky Flind said her husband was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and was now “receiving in-patient hospital care where he will stay for the foreseeable future” as she asked for privacy for her family. The Metropolitan Police has said no criminal offence has been committed by Mr Edwards. You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Known for being the BBC's 'go-to-guy' when it comes to major news, Huw began his career in broadcasting at an early age. His passion for journalism has taken him from the Swansea Sound radio station to the main stage of the BBC and ever one to 'send the elevator back down', he regularly shares his expertise with budding journalists of the future at Welsh universities. But how did Huw's own journey in media begin?
Born in Bridgend, Huw's Welsh-speaking family moved to Llangennech, near Llanelli, when he was four years old. His father, Hywel Teifi Edwards, was a Plaid Cymru and Welsh language activist and his mother was Aerona Protheroe, a teacher at Llanelli's Ysgol Gyfun y Strade.
Last year, during an S4C documentary that celebrated Huw's 60th birthday, the newsreader spoke of his turbulent relationship with his father. He said: "We weren't that close to be honest - not like me and mam, because dad wasn't that present when I was growing up. He could be quite sharp. I laugh when people tell me that dad was full of humour and that he always had a smile on his face. I often think - what, do you live on the same planet as me? Yes, he could be very witty and he could laugh. He could be very sharp-tongued at times and if you were on the receiving end of that, it wasn't very fun." You can read more about this here.
He now lives in Dulwich, London with his wife Vicky. Vicky used to work for the BBC herself and was a long-standing editor of the BBC's The Week politics show. She left her role in 2016 and moved to rival ITV show Peston. The pair share five adult children together. They have three sons, Dan, Sammy and Amos and two daughters, Hannah and Rebecca.
Huw was educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School and graduated with a first-class honours degree in French from University College, Cardiff, in 1983. After his first degree, he started postgraduate work at Cardiff University in Medieval French, before becoming a reporter for local radio station Swansea Sound.
He eventually joined the BBC in 1984. Little did Huw know that this decision was going to change the course of his life forever.
Two years after joining the BBC as a news trainee, Huw became Parliamentary Correspondent for BBC Wales. He would stay in this role until May 1999 when he took over as host of the BBC Six O'Clock News. It was during this time that the programme would become the most-watched programme in Britain.
In a natural progression, Huw would leave the Six O'Clock News in 2003 and step up to the main stage of the BBC Ten O'Clock News - a position he still holds today.
Huw was also the main face of the BBC's coverage of the Festival of Remembrance, Trooping the Colour and the State Opening of Parliament. In 2019, he took over from David Dimbleby as the main host of BBC's election coverage. During his first time as lead-host, Conservative MP Boris Johnson won a landslide majority over Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn and became the UK's Prime Minister.
Alongside his political coverage, he also lead the BBC's coverage on the Royal Family. Over the years, he has covered the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as well as the Diamond and Platinum Jubilee in 2012 and 2022 respectively. Following Queen Elizabeth's death and his subsequent praise for announcing the news, Huw responded on Instagram. He wrote: "My work is a privilege (Thank you for all your messages)" and got a huge response to the post.
In 2012, he made an appearance in James Bond film Skyfall (admittedly as himself, reporting on a fictional attack on MI6). He has also appeared on BBC One's Mary Berry's Christmas Party, Would I Lie To You? and even made a cameo role in Doctor Who.
Aside from his journalism work, Huw is also a keen boxer and regularly posts photos of himself in the ring. In fact, it was his passion for boxing that helped him to not only shed a few pounds but also manage his mental health. In the past, he has opened up about suffering with depression since 2002 and cites fitness as being a coping mechanism.
Speaking to Men's Health UK magazine earlier this year, Huw said it's "pretty clear" that he has suffered with depression in the past, and continues to do so now, and explained that the condition can cause him to struggle to make decisions, dread going to work and, ultimately, struggle to get out of bed.
He said: "I'm pretty clear that I have suffered - and do suffer - from depression," he told magazine columnist and mental health campaigner Alastair Campbell. "It's not anxiety, although it includes anxiety, but it tends to hit me in a strong wave and then go away... I think at least I now know when I'm going to enter a phase like that.
"Your mind goes into a place where you don't want to do anything. You can't make any decisions," he added. "Things that you usually enjoy, you dread. You come into work and obviously you do a professional job, but you're kind of pushing your way through it. And, of course, if it's very bad - as it has been a few times over the course of 20 years - you can't work. During the worst one I had, I couldn't get out of bed."
In August 2021 he speculated that his long career may be coming to an end, he told BBC Radio Cymru: "Now that a big milestone is here, which is 60-years-old, it's natural for a man to think 'Am I going to continue in this job for another five years, or do I want to do something different?'"
He added: "The nightly news business, after 20 years, that can be taxing, even though I still enjoy the job. But I don't think I'll be doing that for long. Because I believe that, in the first place, I think it's fair for the viewers to get a change."
He was speaking before the Queen's death and funeral in September, 2022. He was praised for the way he handled the broadcast, with some people even calling for him to be knighted.
Huw revealed that he learnt of her death just 10 seconds before he informed the UK at 6.31pm on September 8, 2022. He was then chosen to "anchor" the news on the day of her funeral, and he presented much of the coverage between those two significant days too, to which he was lauded with much praise.
Another career high followed that significant occasion for Huw, and he was one of the faces leading our screens for the King's Coronation this May. He provided commentary on the event as the doors of Westminster Abbey opened to guests. Speaking at the RTS Award ahead of the Coronations, he said: "I'm terrified about the Coronation but I've done things before and you have got to tell yourself it is going to be all right. The moment you get slightly carried away with worrying, that is when your system starts to work up, so you have to calm down."
