Acclaimed BBC anchor Huw Edwards — and one of the most recognizable faces on British TV — stepped down amid a sex scandal involving the solicitation of sexually explicit photos from a teenager.
The longtime host of BBC’s “News at Ten” was yanked off the air after being unmasked last July by his wife as having allegedly paid more than $45,000 to a teenager for the tawdry images.
“Huw Edwards has today resigned and left the BBC,” a network spokesperson said in a statement 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.”
A bombshell report, penned by The Sun, included allegations from the teen’s mother who claimed that a male BBC TV presenter had been requesting photos from her then-17-year old child.
The mother said the teen was paid over three years to help fund her child’s crack cocaine addiction, according to The Sun. The outlet did not reveal Edwards’ name — only that he was a a well-known male BBC staffer — prompting several TV personalities to publicly announce that it wasn’t them.
Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, issued a statement on July 12, revealing her husband’s identity and saying Edwards was suffering “serious mental health issues” and had been hospitalized.
“As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years,” Flind said. “The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters.”
A second report in July by The Sun revealed that the BBC had suspended the presenter following the revelations. The 62-year-old host has not been on the air since then.
At the time, the BBC said that the Metropolitan Police had completed its investigation into Edwards and would not take any action against him.
“We’re grateful to them for completing this work at speed. The police had previously asked us to pause our fact-finding investigation 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,” a BBC rep said in a statement.
A review of the BBC’s non-editorial complaints process was commissioned last year in the aftermath of the scandal, which identified shortcoming’s in the network’s process, Variety reported.
The probe was led by BBC Group chief operating officer Leigh Tavaziva and Deliotte under the direction of Simon Cuerden.
“Although our existing processes and systems are, on the whole, working effectively, this review shows that we need to join them up better to ensure no matter how a non-editorial complaint comes into the BBC it is escalated swiftly, when needed, and dealt with by the right people,” Tavaziva said in the report.
“Where the review identifies process improvements we accept those in full, and we are delivering on an action plan with a number of enhancements already in place,” she continued. “The report identifies specific process shortcomings in the presenter case. The initial complaint in this case was not escalated quickly enough to senior management and we have apologized to the complainant for this.”
