BBC warned Huw Edwards about online conduct two years before scandal

The BBC warned Huw Edwards about his online conduct two years before the scandal that led to him being taken off air, according to a confidential report seen by The Sunday Times.

Edwards, formerly the lead presenter of News at Ten, resigned from the corporation last week on medical grounds. Allegations emerged nine months ago that he had paid a young person £35,000 and received explicit images from them.

However, that was not the first complaint the BBC had received about Edwards’s communications with a member of the public, it can be revealed.

In May 2021, a woman, then in her late forties, got in touch with the BBC after exchanging messages with Edwards first on Instagram and then on email, requesting that the corporation intervene to halt contact. The woman, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, first messaged Edwards privately on Instagram in 2018, where his account had the handle @huwbbc at the time.

The corporation subsequently investigated its handling of this complaint, but the existence of a prior complainant and the summary of the findings of the BBC’s review have remained secret until now. The investigation was completed earlier this month, days before Edwards’s resignation.

It raises questions about the BBC’s handling of complaints, in particular when grievances are raised about the same employee, and about the role of BBC figureheads in maintaining the reputation of the corporation — including in their personal life.

The presenter, 62, was told of the woman’s 2021 complaint “within hours” by one of his managers at the BBC. The woman retracted her complaint after she was contacted by Edwards. His lawyers said he was unable to comment on these “unsubstantiated” allegations.

According to a summary of the BBC’s findings, the corporation “spoke to Huw about his actions and his social media use”, saying that — based on what the pair had told them — they understood the “interactions between [the two] were to stop”. However, they quickly started messaging again.

The BBC has social media guidelines for staff, which were tightened last year. In 2021, the rules stated that those with personal social media accounts should “always behave professionally, treating others with respect and courtesy” and should not “bring the BBC into disrepute”. The rules also said “there is no difference between how a personal and an ‘official’ account is perceived” and that employees should not be drawn into “exchanges that will reflect badly on you or the BBC”.

The woman made a second complaint in January 2022 and told the BBC’s corporate investigations team that her first had been withdrawn after Edwards contacted her. She again swiftly withdrew the complaint, later alleging this was after being contacted by the star.

Despite the retraction, a senior BBC manager held a meeting with Edwards on February 23, 2022. The review states: “A senior member of News leadership advised that further concerns had been raised and that contact with you should now cease.” The corporation admits that the second meeting “could have been conducted more formally”. The pair began emailing each other again afterwards.

The BBC would not comment on the woman’s complaint. “More generally, when dealing with non-editorial complaints we have longstanding and robust processes in place,” it said. “We will always seek to handle any such issues with care, fairness and sensitivity to everyone concerned, but, as we have set out, there will always be a limit to what can be said or shared about such processes.”

Edwards, who was the corporation’s highest-paid newsreader and earned more than £435,000 last year, signed a three-year extension to his contract with the BBC 13 months ago. When the allegations emerged last July, the woman spoke to the BBC for a third time, which led to the internal review into its handling of her previous complaints.

It came after The Sun published allegations that an unnamed BBC presenter had received sexual images from a vulnerable young person. The family of the young person had complained to the BBC in May 2023. The BBC waited seven weeks to put the allegations to Edwards, but suspended him after the allegations were published. The Metropolitan Police said there was “no information to indicate that a criminal offence had been committed”, while the young person, speaking through a lawyer, later called the allegations “rubbish”.

Further allegations were reported by his colleagues, including that Edwards — who at this stage had not been named — had been sending threatening messages to a person in their twenties he had met via a dating app.

Edwards was admitted to hospital with “serious mental health issues”. His wife, Vicky Flind, named him, saying she was issuing a statement “primarily out of concern for his mental wellbeing and to protect our children”. Edwards has spoken in the past about his mental health battles. He was suspended on full pay while he received medical treatment, but will now leave without a pay-off.

The BBC’s statement on Monday about Edwards’s resignation tried to draw a line under yet another difficult period for the corporation. BBC insiders say Edwards had a “difficult, sometimes antagonistic” relationship with director-general Tim Davie, 57, and with senior management more broadly, and that bosses were now keen to look forward, which included a search for Edwards’s replacement.

However, the treatment of Edwards — described by one insider as a “Marmite figure” — has split the newsroom, with both defenders and critics accusing the BBC of mishandling the scandal.

One former BBC presenter who was friendly with Edwards likened the BBC’s 55-word resignation statement to “dumping your spouse of 40 years by text”, adding: “Nothing explains the terseness. There were no words of thanks for leading the nation through the difficult time of the Queen’s death. I don’t think it could have been more brutal to Huw than it was — just, ‘It’s better for both of us to move on’.”

A senior BBC journalist added: “They cut him loose. BBC managers are either at your feet or at your throat. That’s just their DNA.”

There is a widespread feeling that a resolution should have been reached earlier. “At the start, some managers felt they could have kept him on at the BBC: don’t have him fronting big events, but maybe in Wales, or making more documentaries. There was a realisation late last year that was not going to be an option, yet it dragged on for another six months.”

However, many in the newsroom — particularly younger, female and lower-profile employees — are frustrated that those who spoke out, including the young person’s worried parents, have been forgotten in this and feel that the issue is being swept under the carpet.

“The bar isn’t criminality. It’s about professionalism, or a lack thereof,” said a staffer. “We have clauses in our contracts that say we mustn’t bring the BBC into disrepute. This is the classic thing of the boys’ network defending their own. And why go to the trouble of interviewing staff and complainants just to bury it because Huw’s resigned?”

BBC sources said the corporation was not planning to publish a formal report into Edwards’s conduct. “This leave the family without answers,” said another staffer. “It’s inexcusable to just hope everyone forgets. It was also a really disruptive time for staff.”

Bosses hope to move on, though. Within months of his suspension, managers were discussing who would fill Edwards’s chair. There is an expectation internally that his role, which includes fronting coverage of major national events as well as reading the news, will be split.

A source said that Clive Myrie, 59, the affable news anchor, Mastermind presenter and a Davie favourite, is “nailed on” to become lead anchor of the 10pm news, although an announcement is not expected in the coming days. Asked this week on Good Morning Britain about his possible new role, Myrie said: “Who knows? Who knows? If the news gods decide that this should be the case, then fine.”

Even before the scandal, Myrie was being touted as Edwards’s likely successor. He is jokingly referred to as “Saint Clive” by some inside the BBC, as he is seen as squeaky clean. He is expected to front the corporation’s general election coverage alongside Laura Kuenssberg, 47, the BBC’s former political editor, who will be covering the local elections this week. Kirsty Young, the beloved former Desert Island Discs presenter who is battling the condition fibromyalgia, is a favourite to helm royal events.

Further changes in BBC radio are afoot too. Emma Barnett, 39, the popular former Woman’s Hour presenter, starts on Today on May 15, filling the chair made vacant when Martha Kearney stepped down.

There are rumours that Amol Rajan, 40, will be the next presenter to call time on Today. The University Challenge presenter is on delayed paternity leave from the current affairs show following the birth of his fourth child last year.

A Today source said: “No one expects him to stay that much longer once he returns. Not that he would be pushed out — people recognise he has brought something new to the programme. But the problem is a sleep issue: too many 3am starts with a young family. And he wants to move on, do lighter entertainment. He wants a talk show, like that interview he did with [tennis player] Novak Djokovic. He thinks he’s uniquely placed to do those kind of interviews.”

For Davie, fresh headaches lie ahead, mostly on the news side. Among them is an employment tribunal brought by five News Channel presenters including Martine Croxall, over a complaint related to age and sex discrimination, with a preliminary hearing being held this week. Croxall was in New Broadcasting House last week, rehearsing in a revamped studio. “Ironically, she’s back at work just as the first part of the tribunal is coming up,” said a BBC source.

The mood in the “pit” — the underground newsroom at New Broadcasting House — is grim, in large part due to repeated redundancy programmes. One BBC journalist said it felt “like the end of days”, adding: “Even though we’re in the middle of a round of redundancies, which is essentially the destruction of the home affairs department, there are already rumours about the next round. The bloodletting never stops.”

One BBC insider likened Davie’s job to “whack-a-mole … one problem is resolved, at least partially, and then another problem pops up somewhere else”. Davie will be hoping that Edwards’s resignation draws a line under an unhappy episode for the BBC.