Huw Edwards ‘overwhelmed by response’ to opening up about depression

Huw Edwards has said he is “overwhelmed by the response” after he opened up about his struggle with depression.

The BBC broadcaster thanked “the many who’ve messaged” after he revealed that he bouts of depression left him “bedridden” during a 20-year struggle with his mental health.

In the S4C documentary, Huw Edwards yn 60, which is to be broadcast on December 29, said at times the problem has been so severe he “didn’t want to go to work”.

He said his bouts of depression began in 2002, at the time he was presenting the Six O’Clock news. This was year before he became the presenter of the BBC’s main nightly bulletin at 10.

Huw Edwards said: “Rather overwhelmed by the response. Thanks to the many who’ve messaged. Not easy to open up but if it helps others it’s worth it. Stay safe everyone.”

In the documentary, he said: “People tend to think that if you are confident, then you never doubt yourself. But that’s not true.

“Like everyone that suffers with depression, you don’t get one bout of it. It comes and goes. For me, it started around 2002 I think. I went down fairly quickly and I couldn’t understand it.”

‘Didn’t want to speak to anybody’

He added: “I couldn’t get out of bed. I didn’t want to go to work. I didn’t want to speak to anybody. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that I wasn’t happy in work. I couldn’t describe how overwhelming it was. I had a bit of a scare and I had never experienced that before.

“The issue was you have to maintain a public image, that is – you’re a well-known face. Whenever I had to go live on air, I would literally have to tell myself – come on now, you’ll be OK now. You just have to do it, and I just had to push myself in a way.

“Eventually it did alleviate. And then, I had another bout that wasn’t quite so severe in the years after that.”

It was recently announced that Huw Edwards will be one of five presenters to take over BBC Radio Cymru’s 8-10am Sunday Morning programme from next year onwards.

The News at Ten presenter will alongside four others jointly take over the slot left by Dewi Llwyd, who has been the voice of Sunday mornings on the station for 14 years.

In the S4C documentary, he will add that he would like to keep working into his 80s like his fellow Welsh language presenter Beti George, who is 82.