Who’s Huw Edwards? The newsreader named as BBC star at centre of scandal

He is among the BBC’s most high-profile presenters and its prime newsreader.

Now Huw Edwards finds himself the topic of some unwelcome headlines after being named as the broadcaster accused of paying a teen £35,000 for express footage.

As nicely as internet hosting the company’s flagship News at Ten for the previous 20 years, he has additionally anchored main nationwide occasions together with the King’s coronation.

In a latest submit on his Instagram web page, he and BBC colleagues had been pictured profitable an business award for his or her protection of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey final September.

Huw Edwards newest: BBC presenter ‘suffering serious mental health issues’

The 61-year-old, who was born in Bridgend, south Wales, in 1961, is married to TV producer Vicky Flind. They have 5 kids.

Away from work, Edwards is a vice chairman of the National Churches Trust, and has written concerning the scourge of “vandalism in disused chapels and churches across the United Kingdom”.

He can also be a patron of the Welsh Buildings Trust, a charity set as much as preserve and develop redundant chapels throughout Wales in want of restore work.

One of BBC’s highest paid stars

Despite being – in his personal phrases – an “angry and stroppy teenager”, he went on to develop into one of many BBC’s largest stars, on a present wage of simply over £400,000.

In 2018, nevertheless, he agreed a pay lower, and advised The Times he was “bloody angry” about it.

“I was being paid what the BBC had agreed to pay me; it wasn’t my fault,” he stated.

A lot of male BBC presenters accepted smaller salaries after it emerged that feminine colleagues had been being paid much less.

Edwards has beforehand spoken about his rejection by Oxford University being an necessary life lesson.

Giving a speech there in May, he advised the viewers he had the “scholarly giants of Oxford to thank for the fact that I’ve been a dazzling success as a journalist” and stated he was “appalled” after being refused a spot.

But, whereas admitting to being “rather stroppy and arrogant as a teenager”, he added: “Failure and setbacks are a part of life. They may be painful, [but] you’ve got to pick yourself up and carry on.”

Mental well being struggles

In a 2022 interview with Men’s Health UK, Edwards mentioned his 20-year battle with psychological well being issues.

He advised the journal his despair consists of anxiousness and tends to “hit in a strong wave” after which go away.

Speaking to psychological well being campaigner and columnist Alastair Campbell, he stated: “I’m pretty clear that I have suffered – and do suffer – from depression.

“It’s not anxiousness, though it consists of anxiousness, nevertheless it tends to hit me in a robust wave after which go away.

“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.

“Things that you simply often take pleasure in, you dread. You come into work and clearly you do knowledgeable job, however you are type of pushing your method by means of 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.”

Early life

Born right into a Welsh-speaking household, his father was an creator and a analysis professor of Welsh language literature at University College Swansea, whereas his mom was a trainer.

Edwards attended a grammar faculty and went on to review French at University College Cardiff.

He started some postgraduate work on medieval French earlier than changing into a reporter for native radio station Swansea Sound, later becoming a member of the BBC as a news trainee in 1984.

Two years on he grew to become a parliamentary correspondent for BBC Wales and commenced presenting the nationwide Six O’Clock News in 1994.

Edwards was suspended by the BBC after allegations had been printed in The Sun about an unnamed presenter paying a teen for express photographs.

Several different folks got here ahead with separate claims concerning the star – earlier than he was named in a statement released by his wife on his behalf.