33 Facts About Huw Edwards

Huw Edwards is a Welsh journalist, presenter, and newsreader.

Huw Edwards presented the BBC's coverage of major royal events, including the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the funeral of Prince Philip, the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, and the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

Huw Edwards succeeded David Dimbleby as the host of BBC election night coverage and was the lead presenter for the 2019 general election coverage on 12 and 13 December.

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, Swansea.

Huw Edwards was educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School and graduated with a first-class honours degree in French from University College, Cardiff, in 1983.

Huw Edwards spent a short time on work experience at the commercial radio station Swansea Sound, before joining the BBC as a news trainee in 1984.

Between 1994 and January 2003, Huw Edwards presented the BBC Six O'Clock News.

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

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 has presented several election specials, including coverage of the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election for BBC Wales and the BBC coverage of the United States elections, 2008 results 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 has presented or contributed to a range of other BBC News programmes, including Breakfast News, One O'Clock News, Newsnight and Panorama.

Since April 2006, Huw Edwards has presented the newly established BBC News at Five on the 24-hour BBC News channel.

In 2014 Huw Edwards presented BBC Local Elections taking over coverage from David Dimbleby.

Huw Edwards shared the BBC's 2015 general election and 2016 EU referendum coverage with Dimbleby.

Huw Edwards has a particular interest in history and has presented documentaries on many historical subjects, 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 2010 Huw Edwards presented a programme titled The Prince and the Plotter about the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, and the part played by Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, receiving the "Best on Screen presenter" at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his work.

Also in 2012, Huw Edwards appeared as himself in a cameo role in the 23rd James Bond film Skyfall, presenting a BBC News report on a fictionalised attack on the British intelligence service MI6.

In December 2018 Huw Edwards was a guest of Mary Berry in BBC One's Mary Berry's Christmas Party.

In December 2022 Huw Edwards was the narrator for the BBC Four programme Organ Stops: Saving the King of Instruments.

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 wall mural of a poem by Tudur Hallam, Professor of Welsh at the university and chair of the previous year's Eisteddfod, saying it was 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 became Honorary Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University.

Huw Edwards has been critical of some England-based newspapers for printing stories dismissive of the use of the Welsh language.

In 2020 he responded to comments in The Times written by 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; Huw Edwards pointed out 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 plays at the Jewin Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in Clerkenwell, north London.

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

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

Huw Edwards is an active Christian and is a weekly churchgoer.

Huw Edwards was awarded a PhD, on Welsh Chapels in London and Llanelli, by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in 2018.

Huw Edwards has stated that he has had bouts of depression since 2002.