Background and career
Maxwell Frank Clifford (6 April 1943 – 10 December 2017) was an English publicist and convicted sex offender who was particularly associated with promoting "kiss and tell" stories in tabloid newspapers. On 6 December 2012, as part of Operation Yewtree, Clifford was arrested on suspicion of sexual offences. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in May 2014 after being found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault on four girls and women aged between 15 and 19. He died in December 2017 after suffering a heart attack in HM Prison Littlehey.
Maxwell Frank Clifford was born in Kingston upon Thames on 6 April 1943, the son of Lilian (née Boffee) and electrician Frank Clifford. He was the youngest of four children, with one sister and two brothers. The family survived their father's regular bouts of unemployment, gambling, and alcoholism with the help and support of their grandmother and Clifford's sister, who was employed as a PA to the London Vice-President of Morgan Guarantee Trust Bank. Clifford left school at 15 with no qualifications, and he was sacked within four months of his first job at Ely's department store in Wimbledon. His brother Bernard used his print union connections to secure Clifford a job as editorial assistant on the Eagle. When the publication moved premises, Clifford decided to take redundancy, buying his first house and finding work with the South London Press to train as a journalist.
After working in newspapers for a few years, writing an occasional record/music column and running a disco, Clifford replied to an advertisement and joined as the second member of the EMI press office in 1962, under Chief Press Officer Syd Gillingham. As the youngest and the only trained journalist in a team of four, Clifford claimed he was given the job of promoting the then relatively unknown Beatles, including during their first tour of the United States. After Gillingham left EMI, he asked Clifford to join him at Chris Hutchins's PR agency. Among the artists they represented were Paul and Barry Ryan, who introduced Clifford to their stepfather, impresario Harold Davidson, who handled the UK affairs of Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. In 1970, aged 27, and after Gillingham retired, Clifford left Hutchins and started his own agency, Max Clifford Associates. Based in the offices of Joe Cocker's manager, he started off by representing Sinatra, Cocker, Paul and Barry Ryan, Don Partridge, and Marvin Gaye. He later also represented Muhammad Ali and Marlon Brando.
Clifford was approached by a brothel madam, who had provided one of Clifford's clients with various services, worried about publicity from an investigative reporter from the News of the World. Clifford asked the madam to reveal details of her girls and clients, and found that one prostitute, Pamella Bordes, was simultaneously dating Andrew Neil (then editor of The Sunday Times), Donald Trelford (then editor of The Observer), Conservative minister for sport Colin Moynihan, and billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Clifford rang News of the World editor Patsy Chapman and drip-fed her the story of Bordes through the investigative reporter she was using on the madam. The story was published in March 1989 under the headline "Call Girl Works in Commons", since it was discovered she had a House of Commons security pass arranged by MPs David Shaw and Henry Bellingham. Clifford acknowledged the significance of the Bordes story in shaping his career: "It opened the world of kiss-and-tell... Even though she was never my client, my name was associated with the story..."
Clifford came to public attention after creating the infamous "Freddie Starr ate my hamster" headline in 1986 for The Sun in an effort to draw attention to his client, Freddie Starr. In May 2006 the BBC nominated "Freddie Starr ate my hamster" as one of the most familiar British newspaper headlines over the last century. Clifford later represented various clients, including former Liverpool left-wing politician Derek Hatton, for whom Clifford created an affair to change his image; O. J. Simpson, for which reason Clifford claimed to have received death threats; Gillian McKeith, whose adverts he believed harmed her image; Rebecca Loos, when she negotiated with the press about her alleged affair with England football captain David Beckham; and Jade Goody, during the reality star's cervical cancer and death. Clifford represented Simon Cowell for over a decade and was credited with shaping his public image; Cowell dropped Clifford following Clifford's 2014 conviction. In 2016, a judge awarded former client Paul Burrell £5,000 damages after Burrell sued Clifford, saying that Clifford forwarded private material in a fax to Rebekah Brooks at News of the World in 2002. Journalist Louis Theroux followed Clifford in the BBC Two series When Louis Met... in a 2002 episode titled When Louis Met ... Max Clifford. During filming, it appeared that Clifford was trying to set up Theroux during a PR stunt in Sainsbury's. It backfired after Clifford was heard lying on his microphone, unaware it was still on. Clifford represented a witness in the case against Gary Glitter. In 2005, Clifford paid damages to settle defamation proceedings brought by Neil and Christine Hamilton after he represented Nadine Milroy-Sloane, who was later found to have falsely accused the pair of sexual assault. Also in 2005, he told reporters that he would not represent Michael Jackson after he was found not guilty of child abuse charges, saying: "It would be the hardest job in PR after [representing] Saddam Hussein". Following the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, but prior to his arrest, Clifford claimed that dozens of "big name stars" contacted him and feared they would become implicated in the scandal; he claimed that in the 1960s and 70s they "never asked for anybody's birth certificate" before having sex.
Clifford helped clients who wished to conceal their sexual orientation from the public. He claimed that he was approached twice by major football clubs to help make players present a "straight" image. In an interview with Pink News, reported on 5 August 2009, Clifford said that if a gay or bisexual football player came out, his career would be over:
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
