Max Clifford sex scandal: Shamed publicist boasts of grooming and being orgy 'ringmaster' in audiotapes
A new documentary on Channel 4 has unveiled audiotapes of disgraced publicist Max Clifford talking about his unquenchable lust and describing how he allegedly groomed and sexually exploited young women. More than 100 hours of interviews that Clifford conducted with his biographer have been obtained and will be heard for the first time in the new documentary which investigates the PR consultant’s downfall.
Clifford was jailed in 2014 for eight indecent assaults on females as young as 15 after Operation Yewtree had him convicted. He died in prison at the age of 74 from natural causes three years ago. In the expose, which will be shown at 9 pm on Monday, he can be heard explaining how he posed as a fictional associate in order to lure women to his office to perform sexual favors.
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'It was my circus, I was the ringmaster'
Viewers will hear him boast about how he persuaded girls to have sex or spend time with his friends at sex parties which he described as “good, honest filth”. “It was my party, my circus, so I was the ringmaster. We were all in this toy shop and we could play with every toy. I controlled it," he said in a tape. He also recalls how he would phone girls posing as another businessman in the entertainment industry and manipulate them into performing sexual acts in his London office. Max Clifford (Getty Images)
He used 'Terry Denton' persona for sex
Clifford admitted he had used the name Terry Denton (a late friend) as a means of testing potential clients' trust, using a fake effeminate voice. “Terry Denton I invented 30 years ago. He is a film financier, a record tycoon or whatever. He is somebody who is put in touch with the ambitious women," he said. “What they don’t realize is, it is me putting on a voice. I mean, the things that Terry suggested… ‘I know he gets off on phoning people whilst someone goes in the office and gives him a b******. If you were to do that I am sure that would show a bit of imagination’. So that is what they do,” Clifford continues, laughing. “Terry has been a very good mate to me for over 30 years.”
During his trial, victims said how Clifford would pounce on them once they were in his New Bond Street office. One girl was told by "Denton" that he didn't like Clifford, and if she could find out whether it was true that he had a small penis. Women were assaulted in his toilet. One was lucky enough to have fled after he pinned her down on his sofa. He tried to get another woman to perform a sex act after asking her to pose in her underwear.
'Slept with mothers and daughters at the same time'
In the audiotape, Clifford can be heard recalling cheating on his first wife Elizabeth as she was dying of cancer. They were married from 1967 till 2003, until her death, and they have a daughter together. He later married Jo Westwood in 2010. Westwood divorced Clifford in 2014, 18 days after he was jailed. She caught him having phone sex on their honeymoon and confronted him about the 'explicit call', but he reportedly laughed and called it a 'game'.
He also boasted about sleeping with partners of people he knew. He would invite people to his parties, which his wife didn’t know about, and would reportedly watch others engage in orgies as well as invite people to watch him have sex.
"I always liked to do naughty things, like seduce other men's wives and girlfriends. I had my cake and ate it," he said on a tape. He also allegedly boasted about how he liked to have sex with two women at a time and that he even enjoyed sleeping with mothers and daughters at the same time.
'Faithful less than 3 weeks at a time'
The recordings were made in 2004 for Max’s biography 'Read All About It', which became a bestseller. The biography was written by Angela Levin, whose books include 'Harry: Conversations with a Prince' and who spoke to the Duke of Sussex on many occasions. Until she started working on his biography, Levin had never heard any rumor about his sexual behavior.
Listening back, Levin realizes the scale of what she was told before she wrote the biography in 2006. “That is terrible, oh my God. I never queried him about it because I thought it was so stupid and superficial," she says in a Mirror report. “Now, I feel it was perhaps opening a very dark door in his soul that led to a terrible underground cave where all the evil goes.”
Levin said: “I asked where he wanted to start, yesterday or his childhood or wherever and he came up with the mind-blowing answer that he hadn’t been faithful to his wife for more than three weeks at a time. I nearly fell through the floor, I thought it was a dreadful thing to hear, with him having told me so many times about his wonderful wife and how she is the love of his life."