Charlotte Edwardes

Charlotte Edwardes is an English newspaper journalist. She has worked at The Spectator, The Telegraph, the Evening Standard, The Times, and The Guardian, where she has been an interviewer since 2023. She has won interviewer of the year at multiple press awards.

Education

Edwardes wrote her postgraduate thesis on Hezbollah.[1] She has an MFA in creative writing from New York University.[2] She is studying for a PhD at the University of East Anglia.[3]

Career

Edwardes spent a decade as a reporter at The Telegraph.[4] In December 2001, she interviewed Osama bin Laden's half-brother Abdullah.[5] In 2004, Edwardes wrote a piece for the newspaper that said that, based on a script before the film was made, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven "panders to Osama Bin Laden". Critic Hamid Dabashi described this response to a then-unmade film as "Very strange, indeed".[6] In 2005, Edwardes and her Sunday Telegraph colleague Daniel Foggo were finalists for the Outstanding Investigative Reporting Prize at the ICIJ awards for their reporting on illegal abortion.[7] They were also runners-up for the Private Eye/Guardian Paul Foot Award the same year.[8][9]

She was a feature writer and chief interviewer at the Evening Standard from 2012,[4] for which she won the 2016 and 2017 Press Award for Interviewer of the Year (Pop).[10][11] She was diary editor of The Londoner for The Evening Standard for over a year before being replaced by Ayesha Hazarika in July 2019, remaining as senior feature writer and columnist.[12]

While at the Evening Standard, she also freelanced for The Times and Tatler. In May 2016, when interviewing cricketer Chris Gayle for The Times, he made what were reported as lewd and sexist comments.[13][14]

Soon after leaving the Standard, she joined The Sunday Times as an assistant editor and columnist for its Style magazine, in September 2019.[4] At The Times and Sunday Times, Edwardes was a features writer, interviewer, and columnist for over three years.[15] That same month, Edwardes accused the then-Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in her Sunday Times column of groping her thigh and that of another woman at a lunch in 1999 when she worked for him at The Spectator, which he denied. She was supported by Conservative MPs Matt Hancock and Amber Rudd.[16][17][18] In 2020, Edwardes was highly commended at the Press Awards for her political interviews.[19] In 2021, she was shortlisted as Interviewer of the Year at the British Journalism Awards for her Times interviews with Robert Webb, Joey Essex, and Kit Harington.[20]

She joined The Guardian's Saturday magazine as an interviewer in January 2023.[15][21] In 2025, Edwardes was highly commended at the 2024 Press Awards for her in-depth interviews, including with Keir Starmer,[22] Gary Lineker, and Jeremy Clarkson.[23] She was shortlisted as Interviewer of the Year - Broadsheet at the 2025 Press Awards for her Guardian interviews with David Lammy, Kieran Culkin, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.[24][25][26]

Her debut novel Trouble Was was published in July 2026 by Bloomsbury.[27]

Personal life

Edwardes has three children - two daughters and a son.[1][28]

Her partner since 2017 was broadcast journalist Robert Peston, whom she worked with at The Telegraph in 2003 and met again at a Christmas party. They split up in 2026.[29][30][31]

References

  1. 1 2 Edwardes, Charlotte (11 March 2019). "My talk on life as a working mother and journalist was an eye-opening experience — for my daughter". The Standard.
  2. ↑ "About". Charlotte Edwardes.
  3. ↑ "Charlotte Edwardes". UEA.
  4. 1 2 3 Tobitt, Charlotte (27 September 2019). "Evening Standard's Charlotte Edwardes moves to Sunday Times". Press Gazette.
  5. ↑ Coll, Steve (5 March 2009). The Bin Ladens: Oil, Money, Terrorism and the Secret Saudi World. Penguin Adult. p. 292. ISBN 9780141036489.
  6. ↑ Dabashi, Hamid (29 March 2019). "14. Warriors of Faith". In Hamid Keshmirshekan (ed.). Contemporary Art, World Cinema, and Visual Culture: Essays by Hamid Dabashi. Anthem Press. p. 433. ISBN 9781783089215.
  7. ↑ "2005 ICIJ Awards". Infoplease.
  8. ↑ Lewis, Paul (8 October 2005). "Shortlist for inaugural Paul Foot Award".
  9. ↑ Hooper, Dickon (14 October 2005). "Scurrilious magazine scoops top award". BBC News, Bristol.
  10. ↑ "Press Awards 2016 – winners announced". InPublishing. 15 March 2017.
  11. ↑ "National Press Awards – winners announced". InPublishing. 14 March 2018.
  12. ↑ Walker, James (19 July 2019). "Former Labour adviser Ayesha Hazarika joins Evening Standard as Londoner diary editor".
  13. ↑ Macpherson, Will (2016). "The Ten: Infamous interviews – From 'It's not easy being me' to a rageful Ravi".
  14. ↑ Martin, Ali (20 May 2016). "Chris Gayle could face more sexism allegations after latest interview". The Guardian.
  15. 1 2 GNM press office (19 Jan 2023). "Charlotte Edwardes joins Guardian Saturday magazine as new interviewer". The Guardian.
  16. ↑ Rhe, Ailbhe (29 September 2019). "Amber Rudd and Matt Hancock won't be the last to rally in support of Charlotte Edwardes". New Statesman.
  17. ↑ Proctor, Kate; Stewart, Heather (29 September 2019). "No 10 denies claims Boris Johnson groped Sunday Times journalist". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ Bienkov, Adam; Corcoran, Kieran (29 September 2019). "Journalist accuses Boris Johnson of groping her thigh, and another woman's, at a drunken lunch while he was her boss". Business Insider.
  19. ↑ "Congratulations to the winners of the Press Awards for 2020". Society of Editors. 2020.
  20. ↑ "British Journalism Awards shortlists 2021: Proof journalism matters and does make a difference". Press Gazette. 4 November 2021.
  21. ↑ Maher, Bron (19 January 2023). "The Times' Charlotte Edwardes joins The Guardian Saturday magazine". Press Gazette.
  22. ↑ Savage, Michael (23 May 2025). "Mossad investigation among Guardian prizes at UK Press Awards". The Guardian.
  23. ↑ Maher, Bron (24 October 2024). "British Journalism Awards 2024: Full list of this year's finalists". Press Gazette.
  24. ↑ "Shortlist". The Press Awards. Retrieved 13 March 2026.
  25. ↑ Davies, Caroline (12 February 2026). "Guardian nominated for more than 20 honours at 2026 Press Awards". The Guardian.
  26. ↑ Tobitt, Charlotte (23 October 2025). "British Journalism Awards 2025: Finalists revealed".
  27. ↑ "New Adult Consumer Titles July - December 2026". Bloomsbury Publishing. 5 March 2026.
  28. ↑ "Verifying Device". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  29. ↑ "Robert Peston's 'guilt' at finding love after wife's death". BBC News. 23 September 2018.
  30. ↑ Snead, Florence (23 September 2018). "Robert Peston reveals he felt 'desperately guilty' about finding love after his wife's death". The i Paper.
  31. ↑ "Verifying Device". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
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