BBC newsreader Huw Edwards opens up about 20-year struggle with depression

The journalist has taken up boxing to help manage his mental health

Huw Edwards speaks at the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony in Westminster, 2020 (Getty Images)

Welsh BBC News at Ten journalist Huw Edwards has spoken candidly about his almost 20-year struggle with depression.

In a new documentary about his career for S4C, titled Huw Edwards yn 60 (Huw Edwards at 60), the newsreader said he began suffering with mental health problems in 2002.

He recalled feeling bedridden by depression and having to give himself pep talks before he went on air in a bid to maintain his public image.

“Like everyone who suffers from depression, it tends to come and go,” he said. “I didn’t want to get out of bed and didn’t want to go to work and didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“It might be something to do with the fact that I wasn’t completely happy at work, but that wouldn’t explain how overwhelming it was.

“The problem is you are a familiar face, and you have to maintain a public image. Before going on the air, a few minutes before 6 o’clock, I had to tell myself, ‘OK, you’ll be fine, you just have to do it’.”

The journalist, who has presented News at Ten for 18 years, said taking up boxing had helped him manage his mental health struggles.

“You are in some sort of a personal zone,” he said. “The whole thing is about relaxing even though it is fitness.”

Elsewhere in the documentary, he said he believes “keeping busy is one of life’s best secrets”, and that he would take up more work if he left his position at the BBC.

“When the time comes for me to quit the job – or for them to let me go – I don’t want to put my feet up and do nothing. I’ll be looking for other work, because keeping busy is one of life’s best secrets,” he said.

Huw Edwards yn 60 will be broadcast on 29 December.