British comedian Russell Brand issued a statement denying allegations published in The Times of London that he sexually assaulted at least four women, including a 16-year-old girl.
Summary
British comedian Russell Brand issued a statement denying allegations published in The Times of London that he sexually assaulted at least four women, including a 16-year-old girl.
- Brand said in a video statement that the allegations were “a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff.”
- “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,” he added. “And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous…Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”
- Four women accused Brand of rape, sexual assaults and abuse between 2006 and 2013 after an investigation conducted by the Times, the Sunday Times, and Channel 4, three of Britain’s leading news organizations.
- One woman claimed Brand groomed her and then assaulted her in 2006 when she was a 16-year-old high school student and the then-30-year-old Brand worked for BBC radio. Ex-girlfriend Jordan Martin alleged Brand physically, emotionally, and sexually abused and assaulted her during a six-month relationship in 2007.
- A third accuser claims Brand raped her against a wall in July 2012 at his home in Los Angeles after she refused to join him in sexual activity along with an unnamed third person.
- She told the Times that she was seen at a rape treatment center that same day and there are some contemporaneous records to support her claims of seeking treatment after the assault. She was also texted by Brand after the incident where he apologized for his “crazy and selfish” behavior.
- The fourth woman said she met Brand at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 2013 and was later assaulted at his LA home. She claims she did not report the allegations at the time because Brand blackmailed her with the threat of legal action and she feared it would hurt her career.
- The BBC, Channel 4 and Banijay UK, a production company, each announced internal investigations as all had previously employed Brand in some capacity during the times when the assaults were alleged to have taken place.
- Brand appeared at a sold-out show in London on Saturday evening after the allegations were published. “I really appreciate your support, I love you, and I want to do a fantastic show for you,” Brand said to the audience. “I’ve got a lot of things to talk to you about. There are obviously some things that I absolutely cannot talk about, and I appreciate that you will understand.”
- Brand’s management company Tavistock Wood Management dropped him in the wake of the allegations. Per HuffPost: “The woman who says Brand sexually abused her when she was 16 has accused the comedian of grooming her and forcefully shoving his penis down her throat. She says she approached Brand’s agent at Tavistock Wood Management in 2020. It wasn’t until this weekend, when the results of the investigation were published, that the company removed Brand from its website.” His management company claimed they now believe they were “horribly misled” by Brand.
- The Guardian reported on the “conspiracy theories” that have sprung up around the Brand allegations. Brand labeled the reporting a “coordinated attack” as part of a “serious and concerted agenda” to silence him. Influencer Andrew Tate, who himself is awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking in Albania, claimed Brand was getting the “Andrew Tate treatment.” Ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson posited without evidence that the accusations were linked to Brand’s views on the “drug companies.”
- The New York Times noted, “The investigation reported on Saturday also included complaints about Brand’s workplace behavior, including from unnamed production workers from Channel 4. They said that Brand would ask staff members to approach female audience members so he could arrange to meet them after filming, according to the reports.”
- The Daily Mail published excerpts from a letter one of his accusers wrote to Brand. “Do you know what you put me through? My body through? My emotions and body are turned upside down… You scared the sh** out of me on July 1st,” wrote the woman the Times is calling “Nadia” to protect her identity. “I thought in any situation I would be strong enough to fight someone off. But when it’s someone you know, you don’t expect to be put in that position. You completely broke me down.“
- The Telegraph reported Channel 4 had removed all content linked to Russell Brand from its site as it investigates the claims of sexual misconduct, including episodes of The Great British Bake Off. Conservative MP Caroline Nokes urged Netflix and YouTube to consider taking down his content.
- The New York Post recalled cryptic comments from Brand’s ex-wife, singer Katy Perry, about knowing the “real truth” about Brand. “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,” Perry told Vogue in 2013. “I let go and I was like: This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me. So I have moved on from that.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
