Matthew Freud

Matthew Freud (born 2 November 1963) is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Freud is the son of June Flewett and the late writer and politician Sir Clement Freud. His sister is television interviewer Emma Freud. His great-grandfather is Sigmund Freud and he is doubly related to the "father" of public relations, Edward Bernays, whose father was Sigmund Freud's brother-in-law (Sigmund Freud's wife's brother) and whose mother was Sigmund Freud's sister. He is the nephew of the late artist Lucian Freud and (by former marriage) of the late writer Lady Caroline Blackwood, and his cousins include fashion designer Bella Freud, novelists Susie Boyt and Esther Freud.

He was educated at Westminster School and was excluded in his third year, whereupon he briefly attended Pimlico Comprehensive.

Career

Freud founded Freud Communications.^[1] Adam Curtis in his documentary Century of the Self describes Matthew Freud as a star in the "new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism" that rose in the Clinton-Blair years.^[2] PRWeek says that Freud is "the most influential PR professional in the UK".^[3]

Freud, his sister Emma and brother-in-law Richard Curtis, sit on the board of Trustees for Comic Relief.^[4]

In May 2005, in partnership with Piers Morgan, he acquired ownership of the Press Gazette and the British Press Awards, in a deal worth £1million.^[5][6] Many major newspapers boycotted the event citing an apparent conflict of interest as one of the reasons.^[7][8]

Personal life

Freud's first wife was Caroline Hutton, with whom he had two sons: George Rupert Freud and Jonah Henry Freud. Caroline subsequently married the 9th Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

His second wife was Elisabeth Murdoch, second daughter of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation. When the couple began dating (while working as colleagues), she was pregnant with a second child by her first husband and business partner, Elkin Pianim (the son of Ghanaian financial and political mogul Kwame Pianim). The couple married 18 August 2001 at Blenheim Palace,^[9] and divorced in 2014.^[10] They have two children, Charlotte Emma Freud, born 17 November 2000, and Samson Murdoch Freud, born 13 January 2007. During the divorce, it emerged that Freud had fathered a child with a mutual friend two years previously, born in 2012.^[11]

In November 2012, Freud was banned from driving for six months and fined £830 after police caught him driving at 117 miles per hour (188 km/h) in a borrowed Ferrari on the M5 motorway. His son was asleep in the front of the car at the time of the offence. Exeter Magistrates' Court was told that he had already incurred nine penalty points on his driving licence in the previous three years - two fixed penalties for speeding and one for using a mobile phone while driving.^[12]

He is a friend of several members of the Conservative party, including George Osborne and David Cameron. Freud has also invited Cameron to many events and is part of the so-called 'Notting Hill Set' of influential Conservative-linked figures. During their marriage, Murdoch and Freud owned Burford Priory in Oxfordshire, and hence were also considered members of the Chipping Norton set.^[13]

See also

• Freud family

References

External links

• Freud Communications official website.
• "Matthew Freud collected news and commentary". The Guardian. 
  
  .
• Matthew Freud collected news and commentary at The Independent.
• Matthew Freud collected news and commentary at The London Evening Standard.
• Matthew Freud collected news and commentary at The Times of India.
• Follow-Up: Roger Ailes on Matthew Freud, The New York Times, 13 January 2010.
• Matthew Freud Is The Most Powerful PR Operator In The UK, Danny Rogers, PRWeek, 18 May 2011.