Meet the Freuds

WELCOME to the world of the Freuds: over-achieving, hyperactive and hypersexual.

Lucian Freud, 87, hailed as the world's greatest living artist, has two children by his first wife and a reported 12 others by various women.

His younger brother Sir Clement Freud, who died this week aged 84, became a celebrity chef, a Liberal MP, a Radio 4 star and a much-loved national Eeyore after starring in a TV ad for dog food.

Both have made an enduring contribution to the cultural life of our nation. Their children have also gone on to leave their own indelible stamps. They number artists, novelists, poets, broadcasters and, of course, PR maestros.

Yet this hugely talented London family are here only because they managed to escape the Nazis.

Sir Clement's architect father Ernst Ludwig Freud, youngest son of Sigmund, fled to Britain from Nazi Germany in 1933. Sigmund followed in 1938, living in Hampstead until his death in 1939.

As grandsons of the great psychoanalyst, Clement and Lucian were always destined to make their mark on the world. But few could have predicted that the dynasty would flourish in the way it has.

Each member of the family has excelled in their respective fields. Esther is arguably one of the most talented novelists of her generation and was on the Granta list of Best of Young British Novelists in 1993; her cousin Matthew is the best-connected PR man in London.

However, the Freuds have become almost as well known for their feuds as their bloodline. Clement and Lucian didn't speak for 50 years. The origins of the rift are clouded in mystery but the artist's former dealer James Kirkman contends it was absurdly trivial.

"They each bet each other they could run faster than the other across Hyde Park," says Kirkman. "There were accusations of cheating when they tried to trip each other up."

Lucian Freud once said: "Family is not important to me. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.''

His family may not be important to him but the Freud family has become an inescapable fact of life in London for the many of us. Perhaps their phenomenal success — and ubiquity — can be attributed to the fact that they haven't endlessly analysed themselves while the rest of the world has.

Sir Clement made a virtue of the fact that he had never read a word written by his grandfather. Nor, it transpires, has his daughter Emma — and it certainly did her no harm.

Only this month Emma was invited by Sarah Brown to dine at Downing Street with Michelle Obama. Emma was on the top table, of course.
Beat that.

Esther Freud
aged 45, daughter of Lucian
Occupation: novelist.
Married: to actor David Morrissey. They have three children and live in London and Southwold, Suffolk.
Need to know: When her parents split up, her mother took Esther and sister Bella travelling. Their adventures in Morocco were the basis for her novel told through a child's eyes, Hideous Kinky, which later became the film starring Kate Winslet. Her other novels include The Sea House and the coming of age novel Love Falls. In 1993 she was named one of Granta's 20 Best British Novelists agedunder 40. She and Morrissey were introduced at a dinner party. He has appeared in movies from Hillary and Jackie to Basic Instinct 2 but is probably best known for his portrayal of a youthful Gordon Brown in The Deal.
She says: "My first memory of Bella is when I was about three. She made me unwrap one of my presents before Christmas, then we wrapped it up again and she made me pretend to be surprised when I opened it. My first experience of independence from her was when I was 14 and she'd left school. I made some friends and remember thinking "they like me even though they don't know I'm Bella's sister'. I felt quite liberated."

Bella Freud
48 today, daughter of Lucian
Occupation: designer and writer.
Married: to writer James Fox, author of White Mischief. They have a son and live in Chelsea.
Need to know: Older sister of Esther. In her early twenties she went to Rome to study fashion, where she fell in love with Italian playboy prince Dado Ruspol, who remained a close friend until his death in 2005. She launched her own label in 1990 and has also designed for Jaeger. She has dressed Kate Moss, Marianne Faithfull, Jerry Hall and Chloe Sevigny. She and Esther appear as children and teenagers in many of their father's paintings. She campaigns, through the Hoping Foundation, against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
She says: (on her father) "What I learned from him is that the worst thing in the world is to want to be liked." (On Esther) "I thought Hideous Kinky was brilliant — she is totally talented. The dynamic changed when Esther had children. I remember not being able to understand why she didn't phone me back immediately. When I had my son, six years later, I understood. We are unalike in many ways, but we're cut from the same cloth, which makes us almost telepathic."

Emma Freud
aged 47, daughter of Clement
Occupation: broadcaster and script editor.
Married: to Richard Curtis. They have four children: Scarlett, Jake, Charlie and Spike and live in Notting Hill and Walberswick, Suffolk.
Need to know: Drama graduate Emma followed in her father's footsteps as a radio and TV broadcaster. She annotates her husband's scripts with notes next to his lines or jokes like "NBG" (no bloody good) or "CDB" (could do better).
Curtis has said that the fact that they initially met repeatedly at weddings inspired Four Weddings and a Funeral. They live — where else — in Notting Hill and have fairy lights outside their house all year round. As well as script editor on all of her husband's projects since they met, including Four Weddings, Notting Hill and The Vicar of Dibley, she is also a trustee of Comic Relief and co-director of Red Nose Day.
She says: "I haven't read a single essay of Sigmund Freud's, not a jot, although I am very proud of him. I know he was a great, great man and changed the face of the 20th century. But I don't know how he did it."

Martha Freud
aged 25, granddaughter of Clement, daughter of Nicola
Occupation: furniture designer.
Need to know: Named after Sigmund's wife, she is considered one of London's most eligible beauties. Martha grew up in Battersea. After university she set up a design firm Lovegrove with a friend before being talent-spotted by Issa founder Daniella Helayal. When not working she has been known to use Facebook for dating purposes — but for her cats, not herself. For her own part she's been linked to Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell. She is also on the membership committee of private members club Molton House and has been photographed by celebrity portrait snapper John Stoddart.
She says: Not much about her famous family, but has been known to psychoanalyse furniture: "I made a chair out of ash wood, decorated with the traditional black and white herringbone webbing. The chair's legs have stockings painted on them, too. I titled the project Exposed Upholstery because I wanted to play on revealing that which usually gets covered up."

Susie Boyt
aged 40, daughter of Lucian
Occupation: writer, columnist for the Financial Times
Married: to film producer Tom Astor of the Astor dynasty, who made Tank Girl. They have two daughters and live in London.
Need to know: As a student she was affected by the death of her 20-year-old then boyfriend in a climbing accident, and later trained as a bereavement counsellor. She has always combined this with her writing; she wrote her first novel while doing a masters degree and since then has written three more as well as the recent non-fiction book My Judy Garland Life: "one part memoir, two parts hero-worship and three parts biography with a dash of sequin-studded self help thrown in."
She says: (about sitting for three portraits for Lucian as a schoolgirl) "I went from seeing him a handful of times a year to three or four times a week. We got to know each other, discovered we had a lot in common. I used to sing for him sometimes." (On Bella and Esther): I was very school uniform-y and had my hair in plaits, while they were fabulous and had streams of admirers. Their friends would be sweet to me to try and get in with them, which was never going to work."

Annie Freud
aged 60, daughter of Lucian
Occupation: poet and artist.
Married: to Dave Cliff. They live in Dorset and Hackney.
Need to know: Annie's mother, Lucian's first wife, Kitty Garman, was immortalised in his classic painting Girl With a White Dog which is in the Tate's collection. Despite early promise, Annie felt that the shadow of her father's talent was too great to be a painter. Instead, she chose embroidery and tapestry. Inspired by the Canadian poet Ann Carson, Annie started writing in the early 1990s. Her first comic confessional book, The Best Man That Ever Was, was acclaimed and included poems about Lucian and his famous paintings. Annie teaches poetry at London's City University.
She says: "There are a huge number of famous artists in my family — and that's without even mentioning sodding Sigmund Poets are often viewed as up-themselves, naff, self-opinionated loonies. To some extent, I suppose we might be." Her father's influence is "profound you have to think, how fantastically lucky I was." Also, memorably, "I'm not Peaches Geldof."

Matthew Freud
aged 45, son of Clement
Occupation: public relations.
Married: to producer Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert. His first wife was Kitty Hutton, second wife of Earl Spencer. He and Elisabeth have six children between them.
Need to know: Has film and lifestyle PR covered, with clients from Working Title to Soho House to Nike, Pepsi and the 2012 Olympics, Sony and BSkyB. In 2005 Freud made £14 million from the sale of a 50.1 per cent stake in Freud Communications to Publicis, the French advertising giant. The company's annual turnover pre-crunch was £18.4 million.
During a row with Piers Morgan (now a pal) Morgan reputedly threatened to pull every story that referred to a Freud client from the Mirror. He had to backtrack when he realised there was very little left to print. Matthew and Elisabeth give a whole new meaning to the expression "power couple".
They are close friends of David Cameron and are often to be found on their yacht, Elisabeth F, or alternatively on their private plane.
He says: very little, while pulling all the strings. His nickname is St Matthew of the Shadows.

Jack Freud
aged 27, grandson of Clement, son of Nicola
Married to: Kate Melhuish, a style writer.
Occupation: public relations.
Need to know: Jack grew up in Battersea and read psychology (he is Sigmund's great-great grandson after all) at Kingston University. After modelling for magazine shoots before he'd even finished his degree he was signed up by agency, Storm. His famous ancestor certainly added drama to his degree. Despite the name being something of a giveaway, on campus he reputedly tried to keep the identity of his famous great-great-grandfather secret. When they did find out, fellow students didn't know whether he was joking although the head of department commented: "I purposely avoided my usual Freud jokes. I'm sure Jack wouldn't have minded, but I abandoned them in his honour."
After early ambitions to run a bar, these days he is an account executive at uncle Matthew's Freud Communications. He is a London party fixture and is married to fashion journalist Kate Melhuish.
He says: "I'm pretty useless at psychology I feel a bit guilty at letting the family name down, but I'm sure that there are quite enough Freudian pyschologists to go round."

Biogs compiled by Olivia Cole