Post Tony Bennett Yesterday at 9:52 pm
Madeleine McCann, Burford Priory, and two of the most powerful people in Britain
One couple where the Madeleine McCann case must have been discussed more than in most houses is that of Matthew and Elisabeth Freud.
Here’s a bit about them both, and a few pictures of Burford Priory in Oxfordshire, where they live – close to other members of ‘The Chipping Norton Set’.
MATTHEW FREUD is the son of for M.P. Sir Clement, later Lord Freud, and his wife June Flewett, a.k.a Jill Raymond, Jill Freud, or latterly, Lady Freud.
June was brought up in the household of writer C.S. Lewis, where she is said to have been the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in Lewis’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’.
Matthew Freud is on his second marriage. He was formerly married to Caroline Hutton, who was the second wife of Earl Spencer; he then married Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth.
So far as the Madeleine McCann case is concerned, Matthew Freud is the owner and chief executive of communications and public relations company Freud International. In September 2008, when Clarence Mitchell, after working for Madeleine’s parents full-time as their reputation manager for 16 month, went part-time, he was immediately employed by Matthew Freud at Freud International as a public relations consultant. Mitchell’s high-lvel contacts would no doubt be an asset.
In the weeks after Madeleine disappeared, Clement Freud, who had a villa in Praia da Luz, invited the McCanns round for a meal. This event is written up with more than a page of Dr Kate McCann’s book, ‘madeleine’ (pp. 193-4), where she wrote enthusiastically of drinking a strawberry vodka, followed by a ‘bloody marvellous’ meal of watercress-and-egg salad, followed by a chicken and mushroom risotto.
Later in the book, Kate revels in Clement Freud’s sense of humour. On 31 August, Freud returned to Praia da Luz, ’phoned Gerry and asked him: “Is it true? Are you close to a breakdown and needing medication”. He then made a wisecrack about both him and the Daily Express suffering from ‘poor circulation’ (p. 229). On 3 September, Gerry & Kate McCann were notified by Ricardo Paiva that they would be required for interview three days later and would be made suspects. As Kate reported: “Our plans for the evening went out of the window. We cancelled dinner with Clement Freud”. But at 9.50pm, Kate rang Freud, who invited the McCanns round, even though by this time he was in his nightshirt. He gave Kate ‘a giant glass of brandy’ and once again joked: “So, Kate, which of the devout Catholic, alcoholic, depressed, nymphomaniac parts is correct?” (pp. 233-4).
ELISABETH MURDOCH is the daughter of powerful media magnate Rupert Murdoch and his first wife, Anna Murdoch Mann (born 1944). She was named after her philanthropist grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.
Elisabeth Murdoch married Elkin Kwesi Pianim. Together, they bought a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations, KSBW and KSBY, in California on a £20 million loan secured by her father Rupert Murdoch. They sold the stations 18 months later, netting £8 million profit.
Elisabeth Murdoch is now the Chairman and CEO of Shine Limited, a television production company with offices in London and Manchester. In 2013, ShineTV produced ‘The Lying Game: Crimes that Fooled Britain’. During the programme, the obvious honesty and sincerity of the McCanns was contrasted with several other notorious liars like Karen Matthews, Ian Huntley and Stuart Hazell. Rod Chaytor, a Daily Mirror journalist, said on this ShineTV programme: “I don’t think my attitude has changed. I think that genuine people making public appeals touch my heart now just as much as they ever did. And I can give you an example. The McCanns. Clearly innocent. Absolutely clearly innocent. And they have my greatest sympathy. Nothing’s changed”:
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In February 2013 she was assessed as the 5th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
She later married public relations man Matthew Freud, the son of former MP Sir Clement Freud, and great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. The couple wed The pair married on 18 August 2001 in a ceremony at Blenheim Palace. They have two children: Charlotte Emma, now aged 13, and Samson Murdoch, now aged 7.
Since 2008, they’ve lived at Burford Priory, where they are known to be key members of the so-called ‘Chipping Norton set’.
In 2012, the Daily Telegraph identified the following people as being part of a "Chipping Norton Set":
Charlie Brooks, racehorse trainer
Rebekah Brooks, husband of Charlie Brooks, former CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, and former editor of Murdoch’s the Sun and News of the World. The two were introduced to Rebekah by Jeremy Clarkson. The Brookses have holidayed with Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud on their yacht, and the Oppenheimer-Turners at their house in St Tropez. Rebekah Brooks has been friends with Elisabeth Murdoch for more than a decade. In 2001, she was a guest at Elisabeth's wedding to Freud and among a select group invited to her bridal shower.
David and Samantha Cameron, Prime Minister and his wife. Chipping Norton lies in Cameron’s Parliamentary constituency, Witney.
Jeremy Clarkson, broadcaster and presenter of Top Gear. Clarkson writes a column for Rupert Murdoch’s the Sun.
Charles Dunstone, chairman and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse.
Tony Gallagher, property developer, owner of Gallagher Estates.
Steve Hilton and Rachel Whetstone. Hilton was Cameron's director of strategy and his wife, Rachel is the global head of communications and public policy for Google. They live in the same village, Burford, as the Freuds.
Emily Oppenheimer-Turner, journalist and painter, and William Turner, businessman. Emily is the granddaughter of Philip Oppenheimer, who ran the De Beers diamond empire; she is married to William Turner, director of The Hospital Group Ltd. and former head of Sky Pictures, a division of Murdoch’s BSkyB.
Howard Stringer, chairman of the Sony Corporation.
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Can't you see the spite and envy in every word? He hates the rich and famous. Sykes
