2.8 & wp_insert_post escaping characters

Hi
I have a plugin that creates posts through wp_insert_post. It was working perfectly until I upgraded to 2.8. Now when it inserts or updates posts all the link and image tags have their quotes escaped in the post content in the DB and on the front-end
e.g. <img src=\'https://www.bookityourself.co.za/wp-content/uploads/dirman/Excelsior Manor Guesthouse02.gif\' width=\'400\' height=\'112\' border=\'0\' alt=\'pic1\' />

I’m perplexed :-/