Dealing with issues
Fergie & PR , Issue 1670

HOW did the Mail on Sunday come by its exclusive scoop, three days after her ex-husband's arrest, that Sarah Ferguson had spent most of January hiding out at a £13,000-a-night health spa in Switzerland?

The paper certainly seemed to have good sources in or around the Paracelsus Recovery clinic, judging by the "insider" who told them "Sarah always feels at home at Paracelsus, and knows she'll get love and attention there, as well as expert health treatment when she's feeling her most vulnerable."

Clinical approach
This is far from the first time the Zurich clinic has had a flattering write-up in the Mail on Sunday.

Since 2021 the paper and its website have run multiple glowing accounts of how its pricy facilities can help those affected by stress and depression, needing to lose weight, or suffering from drug, alcohol and even crypto addictions.

Columnist and in-house trauma victim Liz Jones was dispatched for a freebie there in 2023 to pen a feature (she wrote another off the back of Fergie's stay last week). And representatives of Paracelsus have been quoted in flimsy Mail pieces about how "Oscar winners are almost seven times more likely to suffer from mental health and addiction issues than other people"; "Millions working from home face a mental health timebomb"; and "Middle class cocaine use is spiralling out of control", several of which are proudly puffed on the clinic's own website.

Useful connections
Some fun facts worth knowing: both Paracelsus and Sarah Ferguson are represented by the same PR agency, Soho Communications, whose CEO and founding partner James Chapman is the former political editor of the Mail.

Several of the Mail's past pieces about Paracelsus were done as "back-scratching" exercises to earn them access to other Soho Communications clients.

Repaying the host
Fergie has fronted publicity campaigns for Paracelsus in the past – she put her name to a gushing piece in the Telegraph last summer, enthusiastically followed up by the Mail, raving about the clinic's facilities and how it had "kindly hosted me as a guest".

Indeed, as the Mail pointed out in its 22 February piece, "Ms Ferguson appears in an endorsement on the Paracelsus website published only yesterday, suggesting the stay could have been free".

That is not, however, the only interesting endorsement on the Paracelsus website: it also carries the following rave beneath the Daily Mail masthead: "Paracelsus Recovery is the real deal". Healthy relationships all round!

More top stories in the latest issue:

HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Last weekend's Sunday Times revealed "what it's like to stay in the tallest hotel in the world"… in Dubai, close to where missiles had struck the day before.

WRIGHT & WRONGS
The case of Baroness Lawrence & Others v Associated Newspapers saw Stephen Wright, former associate editor of the Mail, come out fighting.

WHEELER BIN
With her own husband at the heart of the storm between the Sunday Times and Labour Together, political editor Caroline Wheeler has gone to ground.

SHEIKH IT OFF
Yet more twists in the saga of the Telegraph's ownership, with a bid by New York Sun owner Dovid Efune rising from the grave.

WAILING WALL
A year on from a pledge that Reach plc would "serve our audiences free-to-access news", one of its national titles has brought in a paywall.

NONCE-SENSE
Lord (Charles) Moore defended his fellow peer Matthew Doyle in the Daily Telegraph – which is in keeping with Moore's record of extreme forgiveness.

UNFAIR LADY
Nearly a year after the Lady magazine folded, staff and contributors have yet to receive a penny of the money they're owed in salary or commissions.

RUPERT BARED
Author Gabriel Sherman's overview of the Murdoch succession crisis demonstrates that one thing has been driving the Dirty Digger all along…