Suspended presenter Huw Edwards ‘too unwell to discuss future at BBC’

BBC chief news presenter was admitted to hospital after a ‘serious episode’ and is said to be still recovering

BBC managers have been unable to make progress on replacing Huw Edwards as chief news presenter because he is reportedly still unfit to take part in talks about his future.

Mr Edwards has been off air for six months after being suspended in July over allegations that he received inappropriate messages from a teenager and gave them money. Speculation remains about his future at the BBC as it prepares for a general election this year.

Vicky Flind, Mr Edwards’s wife, who named him as the presenter at the centre of the scandal after the allegations were first reported in The Sun, said he would be in hospital for the “foreseeable future” after he suffered a “serious episode”.

Mr Edwards, who has a history of mental ill health and has previously been treated for severe depression, is not yet thought to have recovered. It is unclear if he remains in hospital, The Times reports.

Resolving Mr Edwards’s future is coming into sharper focus as the BBC prepares for a busy news year, with multiple elections taking place across the world, as well as in the UK, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Journalist Huw Edwards has previously been at the helm of significant political and royal events for the BBC (Chris Jackson/PA) (PA Archive)

One longstanding colleague of Mr Edwards said that the corporation would like to resolve the situation soon. They told The Times: “The BBC would like to get this whole unhappy situation wrapped up as quickly as possible. Things have been dragging on for six months now and they still haven’t been able to make any progress.”

Welsh journalist Edwards had been for years at the helm of significant political and royal events for the BBC.

He announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC last September, covered her funeral and anchored the BBC’s broadcast of the coronation of the King in May.

The former Westminster correspondent presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and Platinum Jubilee in 2022, the wedding of the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, and the funeral of the then Duke of Edinburgh in 2021.

The BBC News at Ten presenter was also the broadcaster’s voice at Trooping the Colour and the Festival of Remembrance and had taken over election coverage from the long-serving David Dimbleby in 2019.

The Metropolitan Police said in July that no criminal offence had taken place.