Behind Edwards' respectable facade lay a man at war with himself... as I discovered when I met vulnerable teen at heart of his first sex pics scandal

HE was the respectable face of the BBC who was trusted to soberly announce the death of the Queen to the nation.

- TOM BRYANT

During his 40 years at the corporation, Huw Edwards never put a foot wrong as he climbed the ladder to become one of its highest earners.

But behind the respectable facade lay a man at war with himself.

I learned this 15 months ago, when I sat down to interview the young person who sparked his downfall, alongside his father.

This was the lad whose mum and stepdad blew the whistle on Edwards paying tens of thousands of pounds for sexual images when he was a teenager.

It set in motion a chain of events that ultimately led to the BBC man losing his job.

There was no question in our minds just how vulnerable the lad was at the time of meeting the BBC star. And it begged the question: just what on earth was Edwards thinking? And as I worked on this story, a clear pattern of behaviour soon began to emerge.

I know of others who were in contact with the star and in thrall to his national-treasure status, just like this young man was.

Edwards was clandestinely conducting online relationships with dozens of people on platforms including Instagram, WhatsApp and even business networking site LinkedIn.

Throughout all this time, he was married to producer wife Vicky Flind, who was presumably unaware of her husband's infidelity.

Bizarrely, Edwards never tried to hide the fact he was married from those he was in contact with. In fact, he would often talk about his family, and was proud of their achievements.