Name Brian MacLaurin | ||
Brian MacLaurin is a former newspaper journalist and national TV broadcaster, and one of the UK’s leading Public Relations operators, widely acknowledged as the man who introduced Sophie Rhys-Jones (now the Countess of Wessex) to Prince Edward.
Contents
- Early career
- MacLaurin
- Sophie Rhys Jones and Prince Edward
- Topless pictures
- Cheriegate
- Richard Desmond
- Sale of MacLaurin
- References
MacLaurin, a Scot, has advised a variety of high-profile individuals over the last 20 years, ranging from Chris Tarrant, Noel Edmonds, Colin Montgomerie, to members of the Royal Family, and companies such as Chrysalis, Safeway, Global Radio, Northern and Shell, and launching Sony PlayStation.
Early career
MacLaurin started his career in 1967 as copyboy on the Sunday Express in Glasgow, before joining the Greenock Telegraph. In the early 1970s he joined Scottish Television and later became Industrial correspondent for ATV in the Midlands and a correspondent for ITN. In 1979 he took his first job in PR as Head of Press for Scottish TV, before joining Crown Communications as Communications Director in 1989.
MacLaurin
In 1993, MacLaurin launched his eponymous public relations agency – building the MacLaurin brand into a business employing 77 people and turning over nearly £6m a year. Other clients included Emap Elan, The Miller Group, BT Cellnet, and Associated New Media, and launching the Heart Radio stations in London and the Midlands for Chrysalis.
Sophie Rhys Jones and Prince Edward
In July 1993 MacLaurin was organizing a photoshoot between Sue Barker and Prince Edward to publicise a marathon real tennis game Edward was to play for charity. When Barker dropped out at the last minute, MacLaurin took Sophie Rhys-Jones, one of his staff, and introduced her to Prince Edward, after which they began secretly dating.
When Andrew Morton, the author of Diana: Her True Story revealed to Sophie in December 1993 that he knew about her relationship with Prince Edward, MacLaurin handled the subsequent publicity.
Topless pictures
In 1999, The Sun published historical topless pictures of Rhys-Jones with Chris Tarrant weeks before her wedding to Prince Edward. MacLaurin defused the crisis with an “ingenious plan” which resulted in the Sun Editor David Yelland printing a front-page apology to Rhys-Jones and Prince Edward. Yelland later admitted MacLaurin “absolutely took me to the cleaners.”
Cheriegate
In December 2002, Brian MacLaurin and his colleague Ian Monk were tasked with advising Carole Caplin and, through her, Peter Foster around their involvement in the so-called “Cheriegate” affair, when Cherie Blair, wife of then Prime Minister Tony Blair, admitted the fraudster Peter Foster had helped her negotiate the purchase of two flats in Bristol. It created a “media storm”, making front-page news in many national newspapers.
Richard Desmond
For five years, MacLaurin handled the PR for Richard Desmond, and “masterminded his transformation from vilified porn baron to respectable newspaper proprietor”, shepherding the Northern & Shell boss through some of the most “colourful episodes in recent Fleet Street history,” including the reported episode when Desmond goose-stepped in front of the bosses of the Telegraph.
Sale of MacLaurin
In 2001 MacLaurin sold his company to Hatch Group for more than £6m – pocketing around £4m as the 81% owner of the company. In 2003, he wanted to “return to the media coalface” and he founded Brian MacLaurin Associates, when he was asked to advise John Magnier over his high-profile spat with Alex Ferguson and whose clients now include Global Radio, Europe’s largest commercial radio group, and Andrey Melnichenko, the Russian billionaire.