Trigger Warning: This article discusses sexual assault and rape accusations.
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Russell Brand has vehemently denied recent allegations, after being accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse during a seven-year period at the height of his fame. Four women have levelled sexual assault claims against the actor and comedian, 48, in a joint exposé by the Sunday Times, The Times and British news program, Dispatches.
Occurring between 2006 and 2013 when Brand held several high-profile jobs at the BBC and starred in Hollywood movies, the alleged incidents vary between one-off attacks and longer periods of abusive and controlling behaviour.
One woman has claimed that she was sexually assaulted and emotionally abused by Brand during a three-month relationship in 2006 when she was just 16 – with the actor reportedly referring to her as “the child”.
“Russell engaged in the behaviours of a groomer, looking back, but I didn’t even know what that was then, or what that looked like,” she told the Sunday Times.
One woman alleged that Brand sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles in 2013, before threatening to take legal action against her if she told anyone. Meanwhile, another claimed Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home in 2012, the same month his divorce from singer Katy Perry was finalised.
Brand, who more recently has developed a large cult following on social media for his alternative views on politics and society, has taken to YouTube and X to “absolutely refute” the allegations against him.
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I’ve written about extensively in my books I was very, very promiscuous,” he said in the video. “During that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.”
It’s not the first time allegations of this nature have been levelled against the actor. In 2015, model Jordan Martin spoke about her sexually and emotionally abusive six-month relationship with Brand to The Mail on Sunday. She had released a self-published book the year prior in which she claimed the actor – who she renamed as ‘Randall Grand’ in the tome – had assaulted her in 2007 after finding out that she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend and once made her brush her teeth so hard her gums bled so she would taste “anonymous”.
While Martin declined to be interviewed by investigative reporters for the recent exposé, she told the Sunday Times she stood by her account in kNot: Entanglement with a Celebrity. Brand has never challenged the content of the book.
The self-dubbed wellness guru has also been publicly slammed by a few of his fellow celebrities for his crude behaviour in the past, with Dannii Minogue calling him out in 2006. “He is completely crazy and a bit of a vile predator,” she told The Mirror. “I certainly don’t think he has cured his sex addiction, that’s for sure. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He always goes that step too far. Never quite far enough to slap his face, but usually too far.”
Despite the allegations, more of which have come out since the initial investigation, Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher has said to be sticking by the actor as she always has. The 36-year-old, who is currently heavily pregnant with the couple’s third child, tied the knot in 2017 and she has been credited with helping to reform the “former bad boy”.
“What Russell did was firmly in the past, way before he and Laura met,” a source has revealed. “Of course it isn’t easy, but they are determined to get through this.”
However, the professional fallout has been swift, with the last couple of dates on Brand’s UK comedy tour postponed indefinitely and his book publishing deal with Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird suspended. And although no charges have been laid, the Metropolitan Police have since confirmed they are now investigating an alleged sexual assault in Soho in 2003 and urged any other person with complaints or allegations to come forward.
Brand’s former wife, Katy Perry, has stayed silent on the allegations against her ex so far. However, speculation about how much she knew about his sordid past has started to bubble.
Back in 2013, the singer alluded in an interview with Vogue that she had secrets about Brand but was keeping them close to her chest. “I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day,” she said at the time.
The pair enjoyed a whirlwind romance before tying the knot in 2010. However, their marriage was abruptly put to a stop by Brand the following year. “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011,” Perry previously revealed.
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