BBC Anchor Who Allegedly Paid Teen For Explicit Photos Outed By His Wife!

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

Last week, news broke in UK media outlets about a BBC broadcaster who allegedly paid £35,000 to a 17-year-old for sexually explicit photos.

The scandal, which was first reported by The Sun, was shocking. But there were few details to go on at the time. The story was based on an interview with the young person’s mother and stepfather, who alleged the payments for sexually explicit photos had been “fueling” the teen’s drug use. And the so-called “BBC presenter” involved was not named — so there were plenty of questions about who it could be.

The case got weirder on Monday, when a purported lawyer for that young person came forward and told the BBC that “nothing inappropriate” happened. At that time, the teen’s lawyer slammed the original reporting by The Sun in a strong statement sent to the UK’s public news service:

“For the avoidance of doubt, nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations reported in The Sun newspaper are rubbish.”

We bring that backstory up now because the identity of the broadcaster allegedly involved in the explicit-photos-for-cash swap has been outed — and he may just be BBC News’ MOST high-profile presenter!!!

On Wednesday, The Sun, People, and others reported that longtime BBC anchor Huw Edwards is the man accused of sending cash to the teen in exchange for sexually explicit photos. And his name has been revealed because his own wife was the one who outed him!

OMG!!!

For our American readers, it may be difficult to get across just how big this story is in the UK. Edwards isn’t any random news anchor — although allegedly paying a teen for sexually explicit photos would be an ugly scandal for anybody. Obviously.

But Edwards is, like, the British news presenter. The folks at Variety compared him to Brian Williams in his heyday — you know, before his scandal pushed him off the NBC News desk. And much (much, much) older readers might liken Edwards to a modern-day Walter Cronkite.

The 61-year-old Brit is unflappable, calm, serious, and professional. And every night on BBC News, he’s there covering national events at the primetime anchor desk. Take, for example, this moment when Edwards was on the desk last September to announce Queen Elizabeth had died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland:

He then helmed the BBC‘s coverage of her funeral less than two weeks later. He also anchored for King Charles‘ coronation back in May. And a million more major events in the UK going back years! So, that’s the rep he comes in with. He’s a big deal in media circles.

But according to his wife Vicky Flind, he’s also the unnamed presenter in the explicit photo scandal. In a statement released to the media on Wednesday — apparently to get out ahead of the story — Flind said:

“In light of the recent reporting regarding the ‘BBC Presenter’ I am making this statement on behalf of my husband Huw Edwards, after what have been five extremely difficult days for our family. I am doing this primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children.”

Then, she dropped the bomb.

She claimed Huw is experiencing “serious mental health issues” and receiving “in-patient hospital care” for severe depression that has been “greatly worsened” by the scandal:

“Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years. The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future. Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published.”

She also noted Huw learned of the allegations against him “last Thursday,” which was nearly a week before the public learned of his identity in the matter:

“To be clear Huw was first told that there were allegations being made against him last Thursday. In the circumstances and given Huw’s condition I would like to ask that the privacy of my family and everyone else caught up in these upsetting events is respected. I know that Huw is deeply sorry that so many colleagues have been impacted by the recent media speculation. We hope this statement will bring that to an end.”

Wow.

According to the Times, the BBC first suspended the presenter on Sunday. But interestingly, that was apparently not the first time the public news service learned of the claims made against Edwards! The Times reports the BBC was first told of the allegations way back on May 19 in “a 29-minute phone conversation” with the teen’s mother. Two full months ago?! What took so long for a suspension pending further investigation??

In fact, the Times and others reported this week that the BBC didn’t even speak to Edwards about that mid-May phone call or the allegations in it until The Sun contacted them regarding the claims. WTF??

Since then, the BBC has started — and stopped — an internal investigation. They halted their private inquiry into the matter because the police asked them to do so while they are investigating. In a statement of its own released on Wednesday, the BBC said police had decided not to press charges though:

“We have seen the statement from the police confirming they have completed their assessment and are not taking further action. We’re grateful to them for completing this work at speed. The police had previously asked us to pause our fact finding investigations and we will now move forward with that work, ensuring due process and a thorough assessment of the facts, whilst continuing to be mindful of our duty of care to all involved.”

So even after the police closed the case, the BBC is reopening its own investigation? We suppose, even if Edwards didn’t do anything illegal, it doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything unethical. They went from ignoring the accusations in May to being extra diligent about an investigation now? Either they realize now there’s no hiding it, so they’re finally doing the right thing — or it’s worse than they realized. We’re actually starting to lean toward the latter. Because it appears there may be even more to this story…

On Tuesday, the BBC was reportedly approached by another person who claimed they had been in contact with Edwards via a dating app. That person, who People reports is 20 years old, had allegedly been communicating with the news anchor for some time. When the young person threatened to go public with their communications, the presenter was allegedly “abusive” in messages.

Per both BBC News and CNN, that individual claimed they “felt threatened” by Huw’s messages after being put “under pressure” to meet in person. That young person claimed they never actually met the anchor but allegedly received a series of “abusive, expletive-filled” texts and dating app messages from him. According to CNN, it’s not yet clear when this interchange took place.

And that’s not all, either! Also on Tuesday, The Sun offered even more new allegations from yet another young person. In these, a then-23-year-old claimed Edwards broke COVID lockdown rules in 2020 to meet with them after first making contact on a dating app. Jeez…

What was a single, apparently non-committal accusation has now become a “they said” situation. Now it’s looking like a pattern of predatory behavior, in which a famous, well-respected man preyed on young people he found online.

That leads us to really wonder about Edwards’ wife’s reveal. Flind’s statement already seemed like it was an attempt to get out in front of the presenter being outed. We have to wonder whether putting Edwards’ mental health battle at the forefront, rather than a plain old denial, was a PR strategy. After all, no one wants to seem like they’re stigmatizing mental health issues. It’s starting to seem not terribly unlike Kevin Spacey infamously giving his coming-out story to deflect from the abuse allegations against him.

As People notes, Edwards — who shares five children with Flind — has been with the BBC for nearly his entire career. He joined the news service decades ago after getting his broadcasting start at a radio station in Swansea, Wales. His career has been put on pause for the time being with the suspension and subsequent investigations, though.

We guess we’ll have to wait and see how the BBC‘s investigation goes. And just in case we’ll keep an eye on the other outlets, too.

If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.

[Image via CBS News/YouTube]