Born into a working-class family in southwest London in , Clifford - the youngest of four children - went from high school dropout to multimillionaire by building a career on the British appetite for tabloid sleaze. He claims to have represented the Beatles when they were still unknowns and to have hung out with John Lennon. A highlight of his career was masterminding one of the most memorable headlines in tabloid history, "Freddie Starr ate my hamster," which The Sun plastered on its front page in Do I say, 'No, my client isn't gay' when I know he is?
Of course. Does telling the truth matter? If it's showbiz, rock 'n' roll, then absolutely not. Clifford's comments resonate today: he has strenuously denied that Dewani, accused of organising the murder of his bride one week into their honeymoon, is gay.
DA leader Helen Zille has called his comments outrageous and Paul O'Sullivan - the former Airports Company security chief instrumental in Jackie Selebi's downfall - wrote an open letter to Clifford asking him to stop insulting the country and demanding an apology. Clifford has been forced to apologise before - six years ago he paid an undisclosed sum in damages to former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine over false allegations of sexual assault.
Clifford, who admits to having organised and participated in celebrity sex orgies in the '70s and '80s, helped bring down the government of British prime minister John Major by feeding the media a string of scandals involving Conservative Party politicians.
The vendetta was driven by the experiences of his only daughter, Louise, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age six and required years of major surgery in a health system Clifford said was being destroyed by a lack of funding. He claims to regularly turn away would-be clients on moral grounds, citing former Nigerian strongman Sani Abacha and pop legend Michael Jackson.
He has previous experience of working for someone accused of murdering his wife - he represented OJ Simpson when the US sports celebrity visited the UK in After being arrested for the murder of his new wife, Shrien Dewani has asked people not to read anything into his hiring of Max Clifford, insisting that attempting to make things play out well in the press is part of the normal grieving process.
South African authorities asked for his arrest after allegations in a Cape Town court that Anni Dewani was murdered by a taxi driver paid in cash to do so by Mr Dewani. Before the allegations surfaced, Mr Dewani procured the services of grief counsellor and amateur defence lawyer Max Clifford to prove his innocence against any allegations that might possibly have been forthcoming.
Pschologists have suggested that grief can affect people in different ways, and hiring Max Clifford could be just one of the many ways in which someone can display signs they are losing their mind. But she experienced what he experienced when her husband, Dr Pox Raghavjee, was shot dead in a carjacking three years earlier. The national commissioner has previously been criticised for describing Dewani as a "monkey".
His spokeswoman said: "The investigation is ongoing even if it means linking Mr Dewani to other cases. Mr Dewani, a care-home owner from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, was granted bail and now faces electronic tagging, home curfew and having to report daily to the police pending further extradition hearings.
ES Money. The Escapist. The Reveller.
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