Huw Edwards faces a bleak – albeit financially comfortable – future after being sentenced for possession of dozens of indecent images.
His broadcasting career is over with no prospect of being ever seen on the BBC again.
It is unlikely other broadcasters will want to hire the 63-year-old given the shame of being given a six-month suspended prison sentence.
He was only spared jail due to his early guilty plea and a number of mitigating factors, including his deteriorating mental health.
As one of the most recognisable faces on TV from news reading to presenting big events such as the King’s Coronation and the late Queen’s funeral, he will now face the contempt of those viewers who so revered and trusted him.
Former BBC broadcaster Huw Edwards leaves Westminster Magistrates’ Court this afternoon
A taste of what he will face came within minutes of walking free from Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Members of the public mingled with photographers to wait and ambush Edwards calling him a ‘nonce’ and a ‘paedo’.
Even passing lorry drivers on the busy Marylebone Road in London shouted out their disapproval when they realised who was leaving the court.
Edwards was able to ignore the taunts but, in the weeks to come, when he steps out of his house he is likely to face similar abuse.
The presiding magistrate made it abundantly clear that Edwards’s once glittering career was in tatters and he had paid a personal price with his family for his ‘betrayal’.
He is reported to have separated from his wife Vicky and now lives alone in south London away from the family’s home.
Edwards with his wife Vicky in 2018. He is reported to have separated and now lives alone
The only saving grace for the disgraced journalist is that his enforced retirement will be comfortable with a reported £300,000 a year pension from his time with the BBC.
He is also said to be worth between £2.8million and £4million.
Edwards was also the corporation’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of £475,000 to £479,999 for the year 2023/24, before he resigned, according to the BBC’s latest annual report.
This last salary marked an increase from 2022/23, when he was paid between £435,000 and £439,999 for 180 days presenting on BBC One, as well as news specials.
The newsreader was front and centre in live broadcasts of election coverage, 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 Duke of Edinburgh in 2021.
Mugshot of Huw Edwards who was given six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years
Edwards was also the BBC’s voice at Trooping the Colour and the Festival of Remembrance.
And when the BBC was looking for someone to take over election coverage from the long-serving David Dimbleby in 2019, it was Edwards who was chosen.
BBC chiefs are now attempting to claw back £200,000 paid to Edwards in light of his guilty plea but have not revealed if they have been successful.
In the days that follow the conclusion of the court case, Edwards will be tasked with signing up to 25 therapy sessions.
He also faces 40 days of a sex offenders programme and will be on the sex offenders register for the next seven years.
Now Edwards has been placed on the register, he will have to report to a local police station within three days and provide certain details including his address and bank accounts.
Edwards will be forced to tell police if he moves house, and officers may visit him to check he is still living at the same property – depending on the perceived risk level.
He must also tell police if he spends more than a week away from home or travels abroad, with a decision then taken whether that country needs to be told.
Huw Edwards, pictured attending a Sandringham Women’s Institute meeting in January 2020
With the financial clout to disappear from public view, it is likely Edwards could retreat to his native Wales rather than stay in London where he will be a target for paparazzi photographers.
One fellow broadcast journalist, who works for Sky TV, described Edwards as a ‘pariah’ who will be shunned by his former colleagues.
Meanwhile, it was claimed that Edwards has been offering to help charities for free with interview preparation, public speaking and political consulting.
According to The Sun, a post on his LinkedIn page read: ‘After four decades of top-level experience in journalism, media, politics and communications I’m available for no charge to charities and not-for-profit organisations.’
It is not known when the information was published.
In 2018, it was reported that Edwards had agreed to take a pay cut following revelations over unequal pay for men and women at the BBC.
Edwards said in 2021 that he was considering his future presenting News At Ten as he approached his 60th birthday.
The broadcaster, who attended Llanelli Grammar School and graduated in French from Cardiff University, was an honorary professor in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at his old university before he resigned from both his honorary professor title and honorary fellowship following his guilty plea.
A court artist’s drawing of Huw Edwards in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today
In June 2023, Edwards picked up the best live event honour at the Tric Awards for being among those to cover the state funeral of the late Queen, and in February he received the Broadcast Awards’ special recognition award.
In 2012 the BBC won a TV Bafta for Edwards’ coverage of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding and the Welsh newsreader has also won the best on-screen presenter prize at the Bafta Cymru awards numerous times over the years.
Edwards was previously vice president of the National Churches Trust and has appeared on Songs Of Praise.
He has also made documentaries for the BBC including Wales: Who Do We Think We Are? and talked about his depression on S4C’s Huw Edwards Is 60.
In a documentary in 2021, Edwards revealed he has had bouts of depression over the last two decades which have left him ‘bedridden’.
‘Like everyone that suffers with depression, you don’t get one bout of it. It comes and goes,’ he said. ‘For me, it started around 2002 I think. I went down fairly quickly and I couldn’t understand it.’
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Jane Garvey and Fi Glover, Fortunately… With Fi And Jane, he said he decided to share publicly that he has depression as he felt it was ‘complete hypocrisy’ to support organisations such as the Shawmind Foundation or Mind without explaining why.