Were relatives saying PR monster is an ongoing project? (4,2,8)

'were relatives saying pr monster is an' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'ongoing project?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ongoing' could be 'inprogress' (synonyms) and 'inprogress' is located in the answer.
'project?' could be 'work' (project is a kind of work) and 'work' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?