Family of young person at centre of Huw Edwards BBC scandal row say they'll keep fighting for answers
The family of the young person at the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal have said they will keep fighting for answers, despite his resignation from the BBC.
The corporation announced on Monday the veteran broadcaster, 62, has stepped down from his £435,000 role on medical advice.
He had been off-air since last summer, when it emerged he allegedly paid a young person around £35,000 for sexually explicit images over a three-year period, beginning when he was 17.
After the scandal came to light, Edwards’ wife said he was receiving in-hospital treatment for “serious mental health issues”.
The mother of the young person at the heart of the storm has now told The Sun: “This isn’t the end for us.“We’re also suffering and have been immensely for nearly a year. We still have so many questions and need the BBC to answer them.”
The family of the unnamed young person originally complained to the BBC about Edwards in May 2023, and Edwards was publicly named by his wife as the BBC presenter at the centre of the allegations in July.
Edwards was suspended by the BBC, but the Metropolitan Police confirmed in July there was no evidence to indicate a criminal offence had been committed.
In February, the BBC issued an apology to the young person’s family, for not escalating their complaint quickly enough.
An independent report, commissioned in the wake of the scandal, found a need for “greater consistency” in how complaints at the corporation are processed.
The young man’s mother told The Sun she needed to know from the BBC whether Edwards had cooperated with their additional investigation into his conduct.
“We are worried that we won’t get answers now Huw’s resigned yet we desperately need them,” she said.
“If he’s been found to have done something wrong, no action can be taken. My heart is broken.”
She added: “This has been a traumatic time we feel hasn’t been resolved. We want closure. This doesn’t take us any closer to it.
“The BBC’s statement said it wants all parties to move on. We want that more than anything but how can we? I don’t think anyone appreciates the hell we’ve been through.
“He’s walked away but we are still living through this nightmare. It’s been a year of pain.”
She added: “We feared this would happen. We can’t just have none of our questions answered. I just want my family to be reunited and for us all to get closure too.”
The family said they were sent an email from the BBC on Monday with its statement on Edwards.
It added: “Thank you for raising your concerns and participating in our investigation.”
Edwards was a highly prominent figure at the BBC, anchoring its flagship nightly news programme News at Ten for 20 years and trusted to handle some of the most major news stories of recent decades, including breaking the news of the Queen’s death, and covering the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2011.
He was the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of £435,000-£439,999 in the year 2022/2023, according to the corporation’s most recent annual report. He worked for the corporation for 40 years.
The BBC confirmed Edwards has not received a pay-off.BBC News has previously reported that the young person at the centre of the scandal is estranged from their mother, according to their lawyer.The young person previously said nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the then-unnamed presenter and the allegations are “rubbish”, their lawyer said in a letter to the BBC.
His mother previously said: “If the BBC had handled the complaint properly, we would have not had to go through this hell. We have been ripped apart as a family.”
The BBC has been approached by the Standard.
