PR Agent Max Clifford: Alfie Patten Should Not Have Gone Public

Hindsight is 20/20 and if public relations impresario Max Clifford had the chance, he would have told his client, baby-faced father at 13 Alfie Patten, to do things differently. It has been revealed that Clifford was acting on Alfie’s behalf free of charge. Had he had the chance and been hired before his story hit the paper, he would have told his too-young-to-be-a-dad client not to go public with his story.

Alfie Patten allegedly became a father to baby Maisie Roxanne after sleeping with his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman. After Maisie was born and the tabloids went wild with how young Patten looked, several other teenage boys came forward to say they too were having sex with Chantelle and they could be the father. In the days since, Alfie was ridiculed, was follwed by a media circus to the point that a judge banned further reporting,had a popular gambling site start placing bets on who the father is, and had both of his divorced parents try to profit from the situation. Alfie offered to take a DNA test to prove his paternity. He’s spent as much time as possible at the Steadman house (albeit playing some playstation), and defiantly wants the world to know that he’s manning up to his responsibilities i.e. Maisie.

“They weren’t happy about a lot of the things that were going on,” Clifford said, “and what they were reading and hearing, so it was a question of saying, ‘Well, we’ll do our best to control as much as we can as quickly as we can’, There’s nothing in it for me from a financial point of view, but I felt, I suppose, a bit sorry for them. I feel I’ve been able to help them make the best of a bad situation. It’s difficult to understand how the whole thing works unless you’ve had experience of it. They basically thought they had a story, they’d get themselves a few thousand pounds, and that would be it.”

He added: “Had they come to me in the first place I would have said, ‘Keep it between the families, sort yourselves out, sort the little one out, don’t go public, don’t talk to anybody,’ as I do frequently when people come to me. ’It’s not in your interest. You might make a few thousand pounds from this, but believe me you’ll have a nightmare and you’ll be torn apart, because apart from anything else if you do an exclusive everybody else is your enemy. So short-term gain, long-term pain. That’s what I would have said, but by the time they came to me it was too late.”

Follow Alfie’s story from the beginning:

Alfie Patten Becomes a Father at 13
Baby Father Drama Follows Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman
Controversy Over Whether Patten and Steadman were Paid for Their Story
Even More Alfie Patten/ Chantelle Steadman Drama!
Bristol Palin Speaks About Teenage Pregnancy, Could Alfie’s DNA Results Be Revealed on TV?
Up to Eight Boys Could be the Father of Maisie Roxanne
It All Might Be a Scam But A Judge Issues a Media Ban on Alfie Reporting
A Popular Gambling Site Places Bets on Alfie’s Paternity Odds
Alfie Says: “I’m The Daddy. If I’m not, f*** you all, I’ll still be there.”

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