Huw Edwards reveals he took £120,000 pay cut as a gesture to his female colleagues because it was ‘the right thing to do’ at height of BBC’s equal pay row
- Huw Edwards revealed he took a 20 per cent pay cut amid BBC’s equal pay row
- The cut saw his salary drop from the £520,000 to £529,000 bracket in 2017/18
- The newsreader made the gesture after Carrie Gracie quit as BBC’s China Editor
Newsreader Huw Edwards has revealed he took a £120,000 pay cut amid the BBC‘s equal pay row as a gesture to his female colleagues.
The News at Ten anchor said he made his decision at the height of the BBC’s gender pay controversy as he felt it was ‘the right thing to do’.
Mr Edwards, 58, said his commitment to take a 20 per cent pay cut, leaving him £120,000 out of pocket, made his daughters proud, the Sunday Express reported.
BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, 58, (above) revealed how he took a 20 per cent pay cut at the height of the BBC’s gender pay row as he felt it was ‘the right thing to do’
The father-of-five said the ‘best thing’ that happened was when one of his daughters told him it was an ‘important thing to do’.
The voluntary pay cut saw his salary drop from the £520,000 to £529,000 bracket in 2017/18.
He said: ‘I felt it was the right thing to do. I felt I had to make a gesture. Did I want to take a pay cut? No, I didn’t, but I felt that I couldn’t look around the newsroom, especially at my female colleagues – not presenters but producers who are paid far less than me – if I wasn’t able at least to say, “Well, look, I’ve made a gesture”.’
The Welsh newsreader said he felt he needed to make the ‘gesture’ to his female colleagues after Carrie Gracie quit as BBC’s China Editor in 2018.
The former China editor, 58, resigned from her role in January 2018, saying that she could not ‘collude in unlawful pay discrimination’, after discovering she was not being paid as much as her two male counterparts.
Mr Edwards said he wanted to make the ‘gesture’ after Carrie Gracie (pictured) quit as BBC’s China Editor in 2018, cited what she claimed was pay discrimination over gender
She cited what she claimed was pay discrimination over gender at the time of her resignation and returned to her previous BBC job in the TV newsroom.
In a letter published on her personal blog in 2018, she said there was a ‘crisis of trust’ at the broadcaster, where she had worked for 30 years at the time.
The corporation initially offered her pay rise, which she turned down, and later apologised to the veteran journalist.
Miss Gracie was also given her backpay, which she donated to the Fawcett Society, who campaign for gender equality and women’s rights.
Mr Edwards comments come as he revealed yesterday that he began comfort eating following his father’s death in 2010.
The Welsh newsreader’s pay cut saw him £120,000 out of pocket, with his salary dropping from the £520,000 to £529,000 bracket in 2017/18
‘It was a proper kind of depression about how I felt and where I felt I was, my dad and everything,’ he told the Times’ Saturday Magazine. ‘I felt it had become rather overwhelming.’
His physical health deteriorated and the newsreader admitted that he failed to acknowledge anything was wrong until an epiphany in 2017.
‘By 2016-17, I had put on a lot of weight,’ he explained. ‘I felt dreadful. I mean, physically. It’s like a drug. I’d eat when I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t doing any fitness. I was grazing, watching telly and eating stuff, even though I didn’t need it.’
He took up boxing and running following the suggestion by his wife Vicky and, with the help of champion boxer Clinton McKenzie, managed to lose three stone – while his mental health also significantly improved.
He said: ‘Getting physically fit has meant being mentally more robust.’