One of, if not the BBC’s most prominent voice, has been outed by his wife as an alleged predator.
Huw Edwards was the public service broadcaster who announced the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing and covered King Charles III’s coronation live for the United Kingdom’s premier news network. On the island nation, the Welsh news anchor’s stature was comparable to that of Walter Cronkite.
And he knew it.
But today, Edwards, 61, stands accused of paying a teen for sexually explicit photos. The Sun, a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, broke the story after speaking to the unnamed boy’s mother, who claimed Edwards coughed up $45,000 for images starting in 2020 when the alleged victim was just 17.
The tabloid did not reveal Edwards’ identity at the time, only saying that they were a “household name” in Great Britain. His wife’s confirmation that the allegations are about him end days of rampant speculation.
The Daily Beast reports:
“Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues,” the statement continued. “As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years. 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.”
She added that Edwards would respond to the stories once he is “well enough to do so” and said he is “deeply sorry that so many colleagues have been impacted by the recent media speculation.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Scotland Yard said it had concluded its assessment into the matter and had not found evidence that a criminal offense had been committed. The Metropolitan Police have therefore advised the BBC it can resume its own internal investigation which the force had initially asked to be paused while officers conducted inquiries.
On Monday, a statement from a lawyer representing the young person allegedly paid in exchange for sexual images said the mother’s claims in The Sun were “rubbish,” and that there was “no truth” to the stories. The attorney added that “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place” between their client and Edwards, and that The Sun had run the first article last week despite the young person informing the newspaper that their mother’s allegations were “totally wrong.”
However, a second young person stepped forward to accuse the famed newscaster on Tuesday. The young man in his early 20s accused Edwards, who remained unidentified, of soliciting and threatening him after meeting on a dating app. The man told reporters they were frightened by threats from such a powerful person.
Many believed that Edwards was under consideration for knighthood before Wednesday’s revelations.
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