The BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teenager more than £35,000 for sexually explicit pictures has been named as Huw Edwards.
He was named by his wife Vicky Flind in a statement issued on his behalf.
Huw Edwards latest: BBC presenter ‘suffering serious mental health issues’
She said her husband was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and is now “receiving in-patient hospital care where he will stay for the foreseeable future” as she asked for privacy for her family.
Ms Flind further said that once her husband was “well enough to do so” he intends to respond to the allegations, which she says he was first told about last Thursday.
At 6pm, the BBC said he had resigned but shortly afterwards clarified that he had not quit.
Huw Edwards presenting the BBC News after the allegations were reported to the corporation Pic: BBC News
The revelation the presenter at the centre of the allegations was Edwards came shortly after the Metropolitan Police revealed there was “no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed”.
After the Metropolitan Police said it would take no further action, a spokesperson for the BBC said: “The police had previously asked us to pause our fact finding investigations and we will now move forward with that work, ensuring due process and a thorough assessment of the facts, whilst continuing to be mindful of our duty of care to all involved.”
The corporation later added that Edwards was facing “yet more allegations of inappropriate behaviour” towards colleagues at the BBC.
South Wales Police then issued a statement saying they had also investigated allegations and had found no evidence of any criminal offences being committed.
The Sun newspaper, which originally printed the claims has since said it has “no plans to publish further allegations about Huw Edwards and will co-operate with the BBC’s internal investigation process”.
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Huw Edwards named as BBC presenter accused of paying teen for explicit pictures.
Read more:
Who is Huw Edwards? Newsreader named at centre of scandal
‘An awful and shocking episode’: Huw Edwards’ friends and colleagues react
Edwards, 61, is one of the corporation’s most high-profile newsreaders and is currently on a salary of just over £430,000.
He has presented the flagship BBC News at Ten programme more than a dozen times since the claims were allegedly reported to the corporation on 19 May.
Analysis: This situation had become untenable – and has clearly taken its toll on Huw Edwards
The statement released by Huw Edwards’ wife Vicky Flind gives a sense of the amount of pressure the news presenter must have been under over the past few days.
Do you have to be perfect to be in the public eye? No, absolutely not, but for some people who are in certain roles, behaviour matters more than others.
Now we can publicly say Huw Edwards’ name on air, that is the reason so many people have been keen for it to be clearer, given the context.
In the last 24 hours, one of the allegations that has been made against him is that as he was publicly, on a nightly basis, explaining the latest developments in the pandemic – announcing stories criticising people like Dominic Cummings – at the same time we have this claim, published in The Sun today, from a person he allegedly met on a dating app, who said he was trying to encourage this young person to break the rules and they did eventually meet up.
He is a brilliant broadcaster, there is no doubt of that, but it had become untenable this situation – it couldn’t carry on as it was.
It’s quite an upsetting statement from his wife, to hear again the impact it has had on his mental health. He has spoken of a 20-year struggle that he has had with depression; while we all know him for his professionalism, how witty he is, he has within the last year or so really opened up about the struggle he has had… talking about how it’s been so bad at times he hasn’t been able to get out of bed.
Clearly this has been a huge event in his life and it has taken its toll on his mental health.
Edwards has previously spoken about his mental health, telling BBC Radio Cymru in 2019 that he was “mentally in the wrong place” when he was physically “unhealthy”.
He also revealed in a documentary in 2021 he had bouts of depression which have left him occasionally “bedridden” since 2002.
The Sun newspaper claimed a “household name” had been accused of giving a young person more than £35,000.
Pic: BBC News
Edwards allegedly first requested images in 2020 when the young person was 17.
The presenter also faced allegations that he stripped to his underwear during a video call with the youth, who is now aged 20.
The young person’s mother said she was “shocked” when her child showed her a screenshot of the presenter appearing to be “leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him”.
The BBC has suspended Edwards and said it “takes any allegations seriously” and has “robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations”.
The young person’s family approached The Sun after becoming frustrated that Edwards was still on air a month after they had complained.
Since his name became public, friends and colleagues of Edwards have reacted with shock and messages of support.
Jon Sopel, former North America editor of BBC News, called the scandal “an awful and shocking episode” and said the presenter’s “complicated private life” does not “feel very private now”.
“I hope that will give some cause to reflect. They really need to. I wish @thehuwedwards well,” he tweeted.
The BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson added that he feels “so sorry for everyone involved in this”.
