Therapy anyone ?

The story of 'Rachel', described by The Sunday Times as a vulnerable woman in her forties, struggling with mental health issues, shows that the "Huw Edwards" problem goes way back and demonstrates a bigger management concern about external reputation than actually recognising that the presenter was becoming a real liability. 

Rachel and Edwards struck up contact on WhatsApp after she messaged him on Instagram in 2018. In May 2021 she complained to the BBC, and apparently Huw was informed very quickly. In May 2021, Fran Unsworth was Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, and Paul Royall was the editor of the Six and Ten. She says she was bullied by Edwards into withdrawing the complaint. 

Rachel complained again in January 2022, Fran's last month in charge of News, with Paul Royall still Huw's Editor. Whatever the complaint, it was serious enough for a recorded meeting between Edwards and a "senior BBC Manager", a meeting which an internal review said 'could have been conducted more formally'. Again, Rachel says she was bullied into retracting the complaint, but messaging between the two continued until Edwards' suspension in July last year. 

Under new management, with Deborah Turness as CEO (one of the few who knew of Edwards' arrest last year), we're told the BBC began to pay for therapy sessions for Rachel "earlier this year", apparently as some sort of recompense for the slow handling of her complaints - an most unusual use of licence fees. Last week Rachel was told there could be 12 more therapy sessions.