One of the UK’s most prominent broadcasters, news presenter Huw Edwards, has resigned from the BBC on “medical advice”.

The presenter had been off air since July last year when he was named as the star at the center of a row of explicit photographs.

Edwards had been the BBC’s first choice to head up coverage of major national events, a reflection of how well regarded he was by the corporation.

Trusted by viewers, he earned a reputation over decades as a reliable and calming screen presence.

On his last day on air for BBC News before the scandal broke, Edwards broadcast from Edinburgh as Scotland prepared to greet King Charles.

Less than a week later, the 62-year-old’s television career was in jeopardy after his wife issued a statement naming him as the BBC presenter facing a series of damaging allegations.

He joined BBC News as a trainee in 1984 and eventually got a job as a political reporter for BBC Wales. Just two years later, he became parliamentary correspondent for BBC Wales.

In the early 1990s he was the BBC’s chief political correspondent in Westminster.

He became a regular face of the BBC News channel, later called BBC News 24, after its launch in 1997.

Around the same time, Edwards was working as an occasional cover presenter on BBC One’s Six O’Clock News, one of the most watched television news bulletins in the UK, and became one of the programme’s main presenters in 1999. .

Four years later he was promoted to Ten O’Clock News, widely regarded as the BBC’s flagship newsletter, and was increasingly asked to present and comment on major national events for the BBC.

They included the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (as they were known at the time) in 2011, the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh (2021), the Queen’s Diamond and Platinum Jubilee (2012 and 2022) and the coronation of the King. Carlos (2023).

He was also on air when Nelson Mandela died in 2013 and co-hosted the Brexit referendum results in 2016.

But perhaps the biggest moment in Edwards’ long presenting career came in September 2022, when he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

He had started his shift early that day following rumors about the Queen’s deteriorating health, presenting non-stop news coverage from 2pm before confirming the Monarch’s death to the nation that night while wearing a black tie.

As well as major royal events, Edwards had recently become the face of the BBC’s general election coverage.

The Welsh station was one of the BBC’s highest earners. In 2017, the first year Parliament forced the BBC to publish the salaries of its star presenters, Edwards was revealed to be earning £550,000.

Following a spate of negative headlines about the amount of money the BBC spent on top talent and the disparity between some of its male and female stars, Edwards took a pay cut and in 2023 his salary stood at £435,000.

Edwards made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, presenting a BBC News report on a fictional attack on the British intelligence service MI6.

In an interview with BBC Radio Cymru in 2021, Edwards indicated that he may not have many years left as the corporation’s chief news presenter due to the demands of the position.

“The nightly news business, after 20 years, can be exhausting, although I still enjoy the work,” he said. “But I don’t think I’ll be doing this for long… I think it’s only fair that viewers get a change.”

That same year, Edwards made a Welsh-language documentary about his career, during which he revealed that he had suffered from bouts of depression for 20 years and that his struggle with his mental health had left him “bedridden”.

A distinguished BBC career finally came to an end after the Sun published allegations last summer that an anonymous BBC presenter had paid large sums of money for explicit images of an individual.

There was days of speculation about who the presenter might be and over the next few days the Sun, and later BBC News, published further allegations, keeping the story in the headlines.

Finally, on 13 July 2023, Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, confirmed his identity on his behalf, saying she was doing so “primarily out of concern for his mental well-being” and to protect their five children.

“Huw suffers from serious mental health problems,” he said. “The events of recent days have made the situation much worse, she has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving hospital care, where he will remain for the foreseeable future.”

“Once he recovers enough to do so, he will try to respond to the stories that have been published.”

Edwards has not yet commented publicly.