Figurehead at the heart of historic events for decades
THE BBC’s highest-paid newsreader led coverage of many historic national events in his 40-year career including announcing the Queen’s death in September 2022.
The star of the BBC’s flagship News at Ten broke the news to a stunned nation after an image was shown of the flag flying at halfmast at Buckingham Palace.
Huw Edwards told viewers: “A few moments ago, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
Edwards was the BBC’s go-to presenter for big news and has been front and centre in live broadcasts of election coverage, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and Platinum Jubilee in 2022, the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage in 2018, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral in 2021.
He played a prominent role as a presenter in coverage of the Queen’s funeral in 2022 and most recently the Coronation of the King in May 2023. He was also the BBC’s voice at Trooping the Colour and the Festival of Remembrance.
Edwards was a Westminster correspondent for 13 years, taking over election coverage from the long-serving David Dimbleby in 2019.
He grew up in Llanelli in a Welshspeaking family, the son of an academic and a secondary school teacher.
He was educated at Llanelli’s boys’ grammar school and applied to Hertford College, Oxford, but did not get in. Instead he studied French graduating with a first from University College Cardiff in 1983 before becoming a reporter on local radio station Swansea Sound.
He joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1984 and became parliamentary correspondent for
BBC Wales two years later. His big break came in 1994 when he became presenter of the BBC
Six O’Clock News, then the most watched news programme in Britain.
He met and married Vicky Flind a television producer who worked on This Week and Peston. They have five children and live in Dulwich, south London. Edwards revealed in a documentary in 2021 that he had bouts of depression which have left him “bed-ridden” since 2002. He said he decided to share that he has depression as he felt it was “complete hypocrisy” to support organisations such as the Shawmind Foundation or Mind without explaining why.
He said: “I also felt it might be someway helpful to people if I opened up about it and say, ‘You can do a job and you can be successful’, whether it’s just reading a bit of autocue or doing whatever it is...while also dealing with issues like that.”
He was the corporation’s highest paid newsreader and earned up to £599,999 for many years before it was reduced between 2018 and 2023 to £435,000£439,999 initially due to gender pay differences.
He revealed that he had started training with former professional boxer Clinton McKenzie as he tried to get in shape in 2019.
And in 2021 he said that he was considering his future presenting News at Ten as he approached his 60th birthday. He said: “The nightly news business, after 20 years, that can be taxing, even though I still enjoy the job.”