Profile | Clement Freud

ITV/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Born:

April 24 1924 in Berlin

Died:

April 15 2009 (age 84)

Married to:

June Flewett (referred to as Jill)

Children:

Five including Emma and Matthew Freud; 17 grandchildren

---

His early life

The grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and brother of artist Lucian, Clement was born in Berlin in 1924, but fled to Britain with his Jewish family when the Nazis came to power.

After the war he trained as a chef at London’s Dorchester, before being made manager of the glamorous Martinez Hotel in Cannes.

His rise to fame

With his finger on the capital's showbiz pulse, he helped propel a number of young acts to stardom and later boasted of being the first person to book the now disgraced entertainer, Rolf Harris.

As one of the country’s first celebrity chefs, he became a regular on TV and became a household name thanks to a series of dog food adverts in which he starred alongside a bloodhound called Henry.

Political power

He later moved into journalism before beginning a 14-year career in the House of Commons in 1973, where he shared an office with Cyril Smith, who was subsequently exposed as a serial paedophile.

Accusations of grooming and sexual abuse

Two separate women came forward to allege that he groomed and sexually abused them when they were young girls.

Freud spent years abusing a girl who he brought up as a daughter, and violently raped a teenager while he was an MP.

His widow, Lady Freud, has apologised to his victims.