The disgraced BBC presenter has a growing army of more than 1,000 fans online despite admitting accessing 41 images of children as young as seven
Huw Edwards has moaned about how he’s had to cope with the “horrible circumstances” in which his TV career ended.
The disgraced presenter’s 44-year stint at the BBC only ended because of his crimes. Yet he said he’s been surprised by the “hostile response” to him since his conviction. And he misses having the “institutional scaffolding” that the Beeb gave him.
Edwards has a growing army of more than 1,000 fans online despite admitting accessing 41 images of children as young as seven. He was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years in 2024 and put on the sex offenders’ register for seven years. The 65-year-old boasted about the numbers of followers he has in his latest Substack blog.
He said: “Reaching more than a thousand Substack subscribers in under three months has fostered in me more humility than the number itself might suggest. And it is perhaps worth setting down why. When I clicked ‘publish’ on that very first post, I was scared.
“You will all know why. I spent weeks fighting the inner voice telling me that no one would be interested; even worse, that no one would think I had the right to speak.
“Your support, your thoughtful comments, and your restacks have turned a solitary act of writing into a shared experience. For that, my gratitude to you all is profound. It is sobering to realise how much of my earlier confidence rested on institutional scaffolding I no longer have.
“And how much more exposed – and how much more honestly tested – a piece of writing feels when its only advocate is itself.
“Over the course of four decades I wrote and broadcast within one institution – the BBC – where the audience was, in a real sense, supplied.
“A documentary commission carried its own reach; a regular slot on the nightly news came with viewers already attached.
“What has struck me these past weeks is how different it feels to build something from nothing, alone, and to watch thoughtful people choose it deliberately.
“You have done so despite the horrible circumstances in which my broadcasting career ended, and despite the hostile response in some quarters to the very existence of my voice.”
He added: “This project has given me hope when I believed there was none to be had.
“I am grateful for the encouragement to write and express opinions on a broad range of issues, as I am for the kindness and support which have formed a true lifeline.
“After many years in an industry that trained me to think in terms of ratings and reach, this milestone was earned differently – one reader at a time, on the strength of the work, and on subjects chosen by me rather than for me.
“Thank you all for being there.
“Huw.”