52 Facts About Huw Edwards

Huw Edwards was the lead presenter of BBC News at Ten, the late evening news programme of BBC Television, from 2003 to 2023.

Huw Edwards resigned from the BBC in 2024, during a police investigation into child pornography offences to which he pleaded guilty.

At the BBC, Edwards anchored coverage of state and international events, and occasionally presented on BBC News at Six, BBC News at One, BBC Weekend News, Daily Politics and the international news channel BBC World News.

Huw Edwards presented coverage of major royal events, including the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II and the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

Huw Edwards presented BBC News at Five, which was broadcast on BBC News from 2006 until 2020.

Huw Edwards was the lead presenter for the 2019 general election coverage.

Huw Edwards was hospitalised with depression shortly afterwards, and resigned in April 2024.

Huw Edwards was born on 18 August 1961 in Bridgend, Glamorgan, Wales, into a Welsh-speaking family, and, from the age of four, was brought up in Llangennech, near Llanelli.

Huw Edwards's father, Hywel Teifi Edwards, was a Plaid Cymru and Welsh language activist, and an author and academic, who was research professor of Welsh-language Literature at University College of Swansea.

Huw Edwards graduated with a first-class honours degree in French from University College, Cardiff, in 1983.

In 2018, Huw Edwards was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree, with a thesis on Welsh Nonconformist chapels in Llanelli and London, by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Huw Edwards spent a short time on work experience at the independent commercial radio station Swansea Sound, presenting a programme on opera and working as a newsreader.

Huw Edwards joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1984.

Huw Edwards made regular appearances on the Welsh-language television channel S4C, working as the sub-editor and presenter of the programme Newyddion Saith from June 1985.

From 1994 to 1998, Huw Edwards was the chairman of the S4C current affairs programme Pawb a'i Fam.

Huw Edwards fronted the BBC's coverage of the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum, and coverage of the 1999 local elections in England and Wales.

Between 1994 and January 2003, Huw Edwards presented the BBC Six O'Clock News, then the most watched news programme in Britain.

In January 2003, Huw Edwards became the main presenter of the Ten O'Clock News on BBC One, the BBC's flagship news broadcast.

Huw Edwards presented various special programmes such as the Festival of Remembrance.

Huw Edwards led the BBC commentary team at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Huw Edwards presented several election specials, including coverage of the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election for BBC Wales and the BBC coverage of the results of the 2008 United States elections and the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Huw Edwards was formerly chief political correspondent for BBC News, and spent more than 14 years reporting politics from Westminster across a range of BBC programmes.

Huw Edwards presented or contributed to a range of other BBC News programmes, including Breakfast News, One O'Clock News, Newsnight and Panorama.

In June 2012, Huw Edwards presented the BBC coverage of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

In May 2013, Huw Edwards took over BBC coverage of local elections from David Dimbleby.

Huw Edwards presented a special news report for the BBC following the death of Nelson Mandela in December 2013.

Huw Edwards shared the BBC's 2015 general election coverage with Dimbleby, and contributed to the coverage of the 2016 UK European Union referendum.

On 8 September 2022, Huw Edwards announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, presenting rolling news coverage from around 14:00 BST following an announcement from Buckingham Palace earlier in the day.

Beyond news, Huw Edwards presented a range of programming on television and radio, including documentaries on classical music, religion and the Welsh language, and hosted various events such as the BAFTA Cymru award ceremonies.

Huw Edwards has presented historical documentaries including Owain Glyndwr, the South Wales Valleys, Gladstone and Disraeli and a series following the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.

Huw Edwards presented Bread of Heaven with Huw Edwards, a documentary about the impact of religion in Wales, which won the 2005 BAFTA Cymru for best documentary and nominations in four other categories.

In 2006, Huw Edwards made a voice appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her".

In 2010, Huw Edwards presented The Prince and the Plotter about the investiture of the Prince of Wales and the part played by Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru.

Huw Edwards received the Best On-Screen Presenter award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards.

In February 2012, Huw Edwards launched a historical documentary series made by BBC Wales, The Story of Wales.

That year, Huw Edwards appeared as himself in the James Bond film Skyfall, presenting a BBC News report on a fictional attack on the British intelligence service MI6.

Huw Edwards's salary was reduced voluntarily in the light of gender pay differences found within the BBC.

In March 2011, Huw Edwards opened Swansea University's "Hoffi Coffi" cafe in the library, created to support the aims of Academi Hywel Teifi, named after his father who spent his academic career at the university.

Huw Edwards gave a speech in Welsh as he unveiled a mural of a poem by Tudur Hallam, Professor of Welsh at the university and winner of the Chair in the previous year's National Eisteddfod; Edwards called it a moving tribute to his father, who had died in January 2010.

In 2003, Huw Edwards was made a Fellow of the University of Wales and in 2007 he became Honorary Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University.

In 2020, Huw Edwards criticised The Times for printing a story dismissive of the use of the Welsh language.

Huw Edwards responded to comments in The Times written by the scientist Michael Pepper in which it was suggested that his late colleague John Meurig Thomas wrote notes in Welsh purely to stop others from reading them; Edwards said that Welsh speakers do not "use our native language in our daily lives simply to thwart others".

Huw Edwards is an amateur organist, taught to play at a chapel in Llanelli, and occasionally played at the Jewin Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in Clerkenwell, north London.

In 1993, Huw Edwards married Vicky Flind, a television producer, whose credits include editing This Week and Peston.

Huw Edwards is a Christian who, as of 2013, attended Presbyterian Church of Wales services in Welsh.

Huw Edwards led a campaign to save the historic Jewin Presbyterian Church, London's oldest Welsh chapel.

Huw Edwards said he has had bouts of clinical depression since 2002.

Shortly before Huw Edwards was named, the Metropolitan Police reported that it had found no evidence of crime and would not investigate further.

Huw Edwards was provided the results of the BBC's inquiry on or before November 2023 and was not reinstated.

Huw Edwards was arrested on 8 November 2023, and charged on 26 June 2024 following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah, said Huw Edwards had acted in bad faith by continuing to draw his salary.

Huw Edwards' sentence was calculated by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring based on an initial one year imprisonment.