From hosting the nightly news to announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Huw Edwards is the presenter the British nation turns to when crisis strikes.
But now the nation is consumed by a crisis of his own, after he was named by his wife as the man at the centre of a media scandal. Media reports of a BBC presenter allegedly spending £35,000 (€40,883) on explicit photographs from a young person, which first emerged on Friday, had led to a frenzy of speculation on social media.
In a statement his wife, Vicky Flind, said Edwards was “suffering from serious mental health issues” – a struggle Edwards has often touched on over 20 years. She said she revealed his identity “primarily out of concern for his mental wellbeing and to protect our children”.
She added: “The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving inpatient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future.”
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After starting his career at Swansea Sound radio station, Edwards enjoyed a rapid rise, joining the BBC in 1984 as a trainee. He became parliamentary correspondent within two years and reported on Westminster for more than a decade.
He metamorphosed into one of the BBC’s most beloved and respected presenters by fronting the channel’s flagship news programmes, including the Six O’Clock News from 1999 to 2003 – during which period it became the most watched programme in the UK – and subsequently the News at Ten.
Seen by BBC executives as a safe pair of hands capable of reading the national mood, in more recent years he has spearheaded the BBC’s royals coverage, including the announcement of the queen’s death, and coverage of King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s coronation, Prince William and Prince Harry’s weddings and the diamond and platinum jubilee in 2012 and 2022.
Edwards was born in Bridgend, Wales, to a professor of Welsh literature at Swansea University and a teacher, though his family moved to Llangennech when he was four. He left home to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in French at Cardiff University before starting his career in broadcasting.
The 61-year-old is known for his strong Welsh accent, which, he has said, “wasn’t a great deal of help” during the earlier phase of his career, when it was comparatively unusual on the BBC.
He has been highly valued by the broadcaster for years and one of the only stars last year to receive a pay rise. The corporation’s annual accounts released on Tuesday revealed his pay increased by £25,000 to £435,000, making him the BBC’s highest paid journalist.
In December 2021 he revealed he suffered bouts of depression. In a Welsh-language documentary about his career he said: “People tend to think that if you are confident, then you never doubt yourself. But that’s not true.”
He told Men’s Health UK he had experienced bouts of depression that “hit me in a strong wave” then “go away”.
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Sometimes, Edwards said, he was overwhelmed by his mood disorder: “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.”
Despite these problems Edwards has always been the go-to presenter for major British state occasions, from the Festival of Remembrance, to 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.
He has presented a number of documentaries for the BBC, often on Welsh politics and culture. In 2012, he made a brief appearance in the James Bond film Skyfall, starring as himself reporting on a fictional attack on MI6.
He is married to the TV producer Vicky Flind. The couple, who have five children, live in Dulwich, south London. Flind previously worked for the BBC and was a long-standing editor of the BBC’s This Week politics show. She left her role in 2016 and moved to the rival show Peston on ITV.
Flind made her statement after what she said were “five extremely difficult days for our family”.
In the 2021 documentary, Edwards hinted he was struggling with his workload. He said: “The truth is that I don’t want to sustain these working patterns for a long time to come, because I don’t believe it’s a very wise thing at all.” – Guardian
