Everything That Has Resurfaced About Russell Brand Since He Was Accused Of Rape, Sexual Assault, And Emotional Abuse
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This article mentions rape, abuse, and sexual assault.
On Saturday, British TV network Channel 4 aired a 90-minute special of their award-winning series Dispatches, with the extended episode investigating allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse against comic Russell Brand.
Russell Brand: In Plain Sight is a collaboration between Dispatches and newspaper the Sunday Times, who first made the accusations against Russell public earlier that day.
Russell started his career as a TV presenter in the United Kingdom, working with networks such as MTV and Channel 4. Over the years, the Essex-born star broke America and starred in multiple Hollywood films, most notably Get Him To The Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Four women made allegations against Russell in the Dispatches episode, with the assaults said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013. In the report, pseudonyms are used in lieu of the women's real names to protect their identities.
The youngest alleged victim, who uses the pseudonym 'Alice,' claims that she was just 16 years old when she was assaulted by Russell. Alice says that Russell would send a car to pick her up from school and take her to his home. She alleges that they had an "emotionally and sexually abusive" relationship that lasted three months.
Amid her allegations, Alice accuses Russell of forcing "his penis down her throat,” and sharing his satisfaction when she cried during the assault by saying "I only want to see your mascara run.”
She claims that he would also demand that she stayed naked in a bath for hours while he was out of the house, and says that one time he held her mouth open, drooled into it, and then held her mouth shut to force her to swallow his spit while she was "gagging and crying."
Another woman, 'Nadia,' has accused Russell of raping her after he convinced her to go over to his house late at night. Details from Nadia's visit to a rape treatment center after the attack are shared in the documentary, as well as a text that Russell allegedly sent her soon afterwards.
Dispatches verified that the text was sent to Nadia by a phone number that is attributed to Russell, and it reads: "I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person.”
Nadia wrote in part of her reply: "When a girl says NO it means no. Do I have to go and get myself tested?" A response from the number attributed to Russell reads: "I'm very sorry. You don't need to get tested."
A third alleged victim, 'Phoebe,' claims that she initially had a consensual relationship with Russell that turned into friendship. However, she says that one day she went to his home to collect items that she'd left there and he "started chasing" her while naked.
"I went to walk back out, to get out of the bedroom, and the door had been locked, which I hadn’t seen him do," Phoebe says. "And he grabbed me and got me on the bed. I was fully clothed and he was naked at this point, and he held me down and was just aggressively trying to fuck me."
Phoebe recalls screaming at him to stop, and when he eventually did she alleges that he "flipped the fuck out" on her.
When she ran out of his home barefoot, some of Russell's colleagues were allegedly waiting outside to meet with him. Speaking on Dispatches, Phoebe claims that she bumped into one of them years later, and he told her that he'd heard her screaming and has never forgiven himself for "not running into the house to save" her.
"I didn’t know what to do and we were all so scared of him. I didn’t do anything and I’m sorry," Phoebe says that he told her. She also claims that days after the incident took place, Russell threatened her with legal action if she told anybody what had happened.
Elsewhere in Dispatches, other women came forward to say that they were made to feel like "pimps" when they worked with Russell as they'd apparently be ordered to deliver notes from him to young audience members so that he could meet them after filming. One of these women claimed: "They were all over 18 but all under 22."
Fellow comic Daniel Sloss also went on the record with claims that Russell's behavior was an open secret on the comedy circuit, and that women comedians set up groups to warn each other about people in the industry that they needed to avoid. Daniel added: "I know for many, many years that women have been warning each other about Russell."
Amid all of the allegations, Dispatches resurfaced some troubling clips from Russell's TV and radio career that show him joking about his promiscuity and the way that he mistreats women.
“I was like, ‘oh my god, he raped me’”A woman shares her story about her experiences with Russell Brand with @C4Dispatches in a joint investigation with @thetimes.Brand denies all accusations including rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behaviour. pic.twitter.com/XtNV5s91gk
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) September 16, 2023
Twitter @C4Dispatches / Channel 4 / Universal Pictures / Via Twitter: @C4Dispatches
Since Dispatches aired just three days ago, many other moments from Russell's career have resurfaced online. Here is everything that has emerged so far.
Russell has released two memoirs over the years, My Booky Wook in 2007, and My Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal three years later.
Both contain incredibly troubling anecdotes from Russell, including encounters with sex workers and detailed recollections of the way that he would coerce reluctant women into having sex with him.
In My Booky Wooky, he admits: "By my twenties I would relish the challenge of chaste maids and the search for the correct combination of words required to decode their moral resistance."
Branding this "challenge" a "nobstacle course," Russell later recalls sharing a bed with a woman named Penny who was only comfortable if they slept top and tail — with her feet in line with his face, and vice versa.
"I spun gags and yarns till she let me turn round," Russell writes. "I painted verbal pictures and begged until she kissed me. I lied and danced and evoked the spirit of Pan till reluctantly she removed her bra, I used tears and emotional blackmail to secure the immolation of her knickers."
In the same book, Russell confesses to spitting in an exotic dancer's face because he "felt very strongly" that he "needed to avenge" the fact that she'd slapped him after they'd had sex.
Discussing a sex worker, Russell describes her as a "sorry, fair-weather excuse for a prostitute" and writes: "Eventually she agreed to have sex, but a kind of weary, half-hearted, semi-erect, bored, disappointing bit of sex, for which I'd paid a lot of money."
Russell then reveals that he ended up smashing her phone after he got annoyed by how much it was ringing. He calls this destruction "the worst act of misogyny I've committed since the spitting debacle."
In My Booky Wook 2, Russell claims that the radio controller at the BBC show that he worked for, Lesley Douglas, was "incredibly tolerant" of his behavior as he suggests that he would have sex with the radio show's competition winners in the disabled toilet at the studio.
Noting that all of the winners that came into the Radio 2 studios were women, he writes: "This is because there was an additional aspect to the prize which could never be explicitly stated due to the BBC's rigid policy prohibiting the misuse of the disabled lavvy."
Elsewhere in the same memoir, Russell tells readers: "What kind of man was I? Treating women in this way? If this is what I'm telling you, can you imagine what's being left out?"
But it is not just Russell's own words that are being looked at in a new light amid the allegations. In 2006, Australian singer and a former judge on the British X Factor, Dannii Minogue, called Russell a "vile predator."
Speaking to the Mirror, Dannii said that Russell had attempted to flirt with her throughout an interview on his show 1 Leicester Square and later chased her down a corridor to demand her phone number.
"He is completely crazy and a bit of a vile predator," Dannii told the publication at the time. "He wouldn't take no for an answer."
"I was told he got sacked from MTV before for wearing an Osama bin Laden costume to work the day after September 11," Dannii went on. "I couldn't believe that I'd just agreed to be interviewed by someone who would do that, it really unnerved me."
She then said: "And then throughout the interview he kept making shocking remarks that I can't even repeat. Just uttering the words would make me blush."
Russell's 2012 interview with Australian TV journalist Liz Hayes has also resurfaced online, with the comic grabbing her and kissing her on the lips as their segment for 60 Minutes came to an end.
Russell Brand kissing a reporter on the lips and fondling her bra. I don’t know about this guy. What do you guys think of the accusations ?? pic.twitter.com/taX8AqeOIH
— Johnny (@tallyman2023) September 18, 2023
Twitter @tallyman2023 / Seven Network / Via Twitter: @tallyman2023
In the footage, Liz tries to remain professional but is visibly shocked by Russell's kiss, he then uses both arms to hold onto her and puts his hand on her back while joking about unhooking her bra.
And on Monday, the Times reported that Russell's Roast Battle cohost Katherine Ryan confronted him on camera about his alleged behavior — which is said to have led to him not returning for a second season of the show.
The two starred alongside Jimmy Carr on the Comedy Central series, and filmed a total of six episodes together in 2018 before Russell was replaced with Jonathan Ross.
According to the Times, Katherine at one point told Russell that it was nice to see him "looking so good," before adding: "I will remind you of that if any victims come out." A source added to the publication that Russell was left "furious" by the comment, which was cut from the episode before it aired.
Deadline published a similar report, with multiple sources telling the publication that Katherine "turned the heat" on Russell "a number of times during filming" for Roast Battle. They added that Russell was "absolutely furious" with his costar, and reportedly demanded that the show's producers protect him from future jibes.
The outlet also reported that Russell is the unnamed "predator" on the comedy circuit that Katherine first publicly mentioned on her TV series Backstage with Katherine Ryan last year.
On the show, the Canadian star told fellow comic Sara Pascoe: "I've done a show with someone I, and you, believe is a predator."
"I was like, 'do I not do it?' But it's such a messy thing because I don't have proof," she went on. "What, am I not supposed to feed my children because of someone else?"
"I raised it," Katherine added. "I called him a predator to his face in front of everyone every day."
She was pressed for more information during an appearance on the BBC series Louis Theroux Interviews later that same year, where Katherine revealed that she'd confronted the comedian in question when they were filming a show together.
"I informed him, to his face, that he was a predator," Katherine told Louis at the time.
Describing what she means by the term "predator," Katherine said: "I mean a perpetrator of sexual assault. But it's very dangerous to have this conversation. I'm happy to have it, but it's a litigious minefield because a lot of people have tried to nail this person down for their alleged crimes and this person has very good lawyers."
"So am I going to put my mortgage on the line by saying who this person is or entering into any conversation?" she added. "Like, we've seen what happens to people who talk about alleged predators."
"I mean, it's not really my story to tell, nobody has perpetrated any sexual assaults against me," Katherine clarified in the interview. "But this person — I believe very strongly and a lot of people believe very strongly, it's an open secret — is a perpetrator of sexual assault. And I, in front of loads of people in the format of the show, said this to this person's face that they were a predator. Again and again."
But none of these confrontations made it to air, with Katherine claiming that producers cut her comments from the prerecorded show.
And echoing what Daniel Sloss said in the Dispatches special, Katherine shared: "We talk about this. This is what female comics, and probably actresses and people in my industry, talk about all the time because that's the safest way for us to talk about it."
When Louis asked if there was a chance that the allegations against the unnamed person were not credible, Katherine replied: "No. They're really credible. Every time these things are eventually proven; you look at Bill Cosby, you look at Harvey Weinstein, you look at... The unmentionable British personality, everybody knew. They say, 'well everybody knew.'"
Katherine has not publicly acknowledged the Times or Deadline's recent reports, and BuzzFeed has contacted her rep for comment.
Finally, comments that Katy Perry made a year after she and Russell split have also emerged. The two married in 2010, but he famously divorced her over text just moments before she was due to go on stage for a concert two years later.
In 2013, Katy told Vogue that Russell had been "very controlling" in their marriage, before cryptically adding: "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."
Katy has not publicly commented on the allegations against her ex husband.
Meanwhile, on Friday Russell uploaded a YouTube video called "So, This Is Happening" where he denied all of the accusations before they were made public.
In the video, he says that he “absolutely refutes” the “litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks," which he claims are a "coordinated attack" from the mainstream media.
After admitting to being "very, very promiscuous," Russell added: "The relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent — and I’m being transparent about it now as well."
Since publishing the allegations on Saturday, the Times confirmed that they have been contacted by several other women with allegations against Russell, which are now being "rigorously" investigated.
The Metropolitan Police have also revealed that they have received a report of an alleged sexual assault in 2003.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
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