Huw Edwards’s family is being advised on communications strategy by the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as the suspended BBC presenter battles to save his career, sources have told the Guardian.
Vicky Flind, Edwards’s wife, talked to Coulson before releasing a statement on Wednesday that identified Edwards as the person accused by the Sun of giving £35,000 to a crack cocaine user in return for explicit images.
Her statement elicited substantial sympathy from colleagues, former colleagues, and members of the public after it revealed Edwards was in hospital with mental health issues.
Coulson, who went to prison after being found guilty of phone hacking offences, was formerly David Cameron’s Downing Street director of communications. He now runs a PR agency that specialises in crisis management for high-profile individuals.
His involvement in the case pits him against former colleagues at Rupert Murdoch’s News UK. They include the chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, a former lover of Coulson. The two were tried together at a high-profile Old Bailey trial in 2014, with a jury finding Coulson guilty of conspiracy to hack phones but clearing Brooks of any wrongdoing.
A decade later, Brooks is in charge of a company defending against questions over the Sun’s reporting on Edwards spiralling into wider calls for press regulation, while Coulson is on the opposite side trying to limit the damage to Edwards’s family caused by the Sun’s reporting.
He is not handling day-to-day communications for Edwards, with inquiries instead being sent to the leading London law firm Harbottle and Lewis.
It’s still a small world, then … 
