BBC presenter Huw Edwards has resigned from the company after receiving ‘medical advice’ from his doctors.
“Huw Edwards has today resigned and left the BBC,” the corporation said in a statement on Monday. “After forty years of service, Huw explained that his decision was made based on medical advice from his doctors. The BBC has accepted his resignation, saying it will allow all parties to make progress. We do not feel it is appropriate to comment further.”
In early July 2023, news emerged that a top BBC presenter was facing allegations of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photos, later revealed to be Edwards.
Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, issued a statement on July 12 saying Edwards was suffering from “serious mental health issues” and had been hospitalized. “As has been well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years,” she said. “The events of the last few days have made matters enormously worse.”
Last year, a review of the BBC’s non-editorial complaints procedure was ordered in the wake of the scandal, revealing shortcomings in the corporation’s procedure. It was led by BBC Group COO Leigh Tavaziva and Deloitte, led by Simon Cuerden.
Tavaziva had said in the report: “While our existing processes and systems are working effectively overall, this review shows that we need to bring them together better to ensure that however a non-editorial complaint comes to the BBC, it is actually submitted. if necessary, quickly escalated and handled by the right people. Where the evaluation reveals process improvements, we fully accept these and implement an action plan, in which a number of improvements have already been implemented. The report identifies specific process deficiencies in the presenter’s case. The initial complaint in this matter was not escalated to senior management quickly enough and we have apologized to the complainant for this.”
