Matthew Freud

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

Biography

Freud is the son of the late writer 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 the brother of Sigmund Freud's wife and whose mother was the sister of Sigmund Freud. He is the nephew of 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 left in his third year and briefly attended Pimlico Comprehensive.

Career

Freud Communications is currently the eighth largest public relations company in the UK, with around 150 employees. Landmark campaigns include the London 2012 Olympics, Product (RED), Nike, Pepsi, The Opening of Atlantis The Palm and UNHCR's Gimme Shelter. 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" which rose in the Clinton-Blair years.. PRWeek says that Freud is "the most influential PR professional in the UK".

Matthew Freud, along with his sister Emma Freud and brother-in-law Richard Curtis, sit on the board of Trustees for Comic Relief, which is aired every second year on the BBC as a nationwide charity event.

In May 2005, in partnership with Piers Morgan, he acquired ownership of the Press Gazette, a media trade publication, and its 'cash cow' the British Press Awards, in a deal worth £1million. An apparent conflict of interest in this ownership is cited as one of the reasons many major newspapers have boycotted the event.

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 on 15 December 2001, and became the sister-in-law of Diana, Princess of Wales.

His second wife is Elisabeth Murdoch, second daughter of media magnate Rupert Murdoch. 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 in August 2001 at Blenheim Palace. They have two children, Charlotte Emma Freud, born in 2000 and Samson Murdoch Freud born in 2007.

He has a friendship with several members of the Conservative party including George Osborne and David Cameron. He was infamously at a meal, attended by Osborne and Peter Mandelson, where it was alleged George Osborne attempted to solicit a donation for the Conservatives from Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire. Freud has also invited Cameron to many events and is part of the so-called 'Notting Hill set' of influential Conservative-linked figures.