At the same time, police said they had found no evidence that a criminal offence had been committed in connection with the charges against him, which have been making headlines in the British press for the past five days.

Huw Edwards, 61, who has been in charge of the big newspaper at 20:22 p.m. for 00 years, is one of the best-known presenters in the United Kingdom and the best paid at the BBC, earning more than 400,000 pounds (466,000 euros) a year.

Joining the BBC in 1984, where he quickly rose through the ranks, it was he who announced the death of the Queen on 8 September, staying several hours on the air, he again who was on the air for her funeral and for the coronation of King Charles III in May.

"I am making this statement on behalf of my husband Huw Edwards, after five extremely difficult days for our family," his wife Vicky Flind wrote in a statement to Britain's PA news agency.

She added that her husband was "suffering from serious problems" with depression and that the events of the last few days had caused a new crisis that led to his hospitalization.

"Once he is able to do so, he intends to respond to the articles that have been published," Flind continued, revealing that the presenter, suspended since Sunday, had been informed on July 6 of the accusations against him.

The police explained that they had spoken in particular with the family who had accused the presenter, in the tabloid The Sun, of having paid 35,000 pounds (about 40,000 euros) to his child in exchange for pornographic photos, over a period of three years, which would have fed the addiction to crack of this young person.

Police also spoke to her, who had called her mother's accusations "rubbish", and to the BBC, before concluding that they had not obtained information to support a criminal offence.

BBC "grateful"

After these initial revelations, other accusations of threatening or abusive behavior were made against the presenter in the press.

The BBC, which had been under enormous pressure for several days in this case, said it was "grateful" Wednesday night in a statement that the police had "quickly" reached its conclusions.

BBC star presenter Huw Edwards on September 5, 2022 in London © ISABEL INFANTES / AFP/Archives

On Tuesday, its chief executive Tim Davie admitted that the Sun's initial accusations were very damaging to the audiovisual group and announced a review of internal procedures in the event of a "red alert".

The BBC had acknowledged that it had been contacted in mid-May by the family. At the time, the broadcaster had not spoken to the presenter and its internal investigation department – which Davie said had received 250 complaints in the past six months – had only tried twice by email and phone to contact the family, the initial accusations not involving "allegations" of a criminal nature.

No British media outlet had given the name of the presenter for fear of sanctions for defamation or invasion of privacy.

But his identity had circulated widely on social media and his absence from the 22pm news had not gone unnoticed by millions of BBC viewers.

The Sun, a successful tabloid owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's group, is one of the BBC's most vocal critics.

He still devoted seven pages to the case on Wednesday.

© 2023 AFP