Huw Edwards leaves BBC on medical advice

Presenter Huw Edwards has resigned from the BBC on “medical advice”, the corporation has said.

The broadcaster has been off air since last July following newspaper reports claiming he paid a young person for sexually explicit images.

He was the BBC’s most high-profile news anchor, often chosen to front coverage of major national events.

“Huw Edwards has today resigned and left the BBC,” a short statement said on Monday.

“After 40 years of service, Huw has explained that his decision was made on the basis of medical advice from his doctors.

“The BBC has accepted his resignation which it believes will allow all parties to move forward. We don’t believe it appropriate to comment further.”

His departure comes nine months after his wife said he had been admitted to hospital with “serious mental health issues”.

That followed a story in the Sun newspaper that claimed an unnamed BBC presenter paid a young person for explicit photos, beginning when they were 17.

The paper’s source was the mother and step-father of the young person, but a letter issued on the young person’s behalf by a lawyer described their account as “rubbish”.

After days of speculation about the presenter’s identity, Edwards’ wife Vicky Flind publicly named him.

She said she was doing so primarily out of concern for his mental wellbeing and to protect their children, and that he had been treated for severe depression in recent years.

Edwards, 62, has not publicly commented. He had been suspended since July.

The normal policy is that an employee receives full pay while suspended. He was the corporation’s highest-paid newsreader, receiving between £435,000 and £439,999 in the year 2022/2023.

The BBC has confirmed that Edwards has not been paid off as part of his departure.

In July, police forces in London and south Wales decided not to take any action against him, saying there was no evidence that a criminal offence had been committed.

The Welsh presenter joined BBC News as a trainee in 1984, and in 2003 became one of the main presenters on BBC One’s Ten O’Clock News, widely seen as the corporation’s flagship bulletin.

He also presented and commentated on events like general elections and royal weddings and funerals, and announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II to the nation in 2022.