Russell Brand Accused of Exposing Himself Then Joking About Sexual Harassment on Radio Show

Abbey White
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Russell Brand is facing a new sexual misconduct allegation, this time for exposing himself to a woman who worked in the same Los Angeles building as the comedian.

The alleged incident took place in 2008 according to BBC News, who was first to report and changed the alleged victim’s name to protect her identity. Brand’s accuser worked for a media company in the same building as BBC’s Los Angeles office, and says that he not only exposed himself to her while they were both in a locked bathroom, but spoke and joked about the sexual harassment on an episode of The Russell Brand Show for Radio 2.

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“I feel ashamed, but more so, I wonder had something been done, perhaps there would have been fewer women he would have done horrible things to, which we’re reading about in the papers now,” the alleged victim told the BBC.

The woman detailed first interacting with Brand to let him and his team into the building on June 16, 2008, who had arrived to pre-record an episode of the show. Their next interaction would be as he approached her from behind as she was trying to retrieve sinus medication while squatting down in front of a medicine cabinet.

When she turned around, she was face-to-face with Brand’s crotch. He allegedly proceeded to say he would address her by a different name than her own, before telling her, “I’m gonna fuck you.” The alleged victim says she responded by telling him no, after which Brand “pretty much served [his penis] to me as you would be serving someone some food.”

The alleged harassment only ended when someone banged on the bathroom door and Brand pulled up his pants. She then texted a BBC employee detailing what occurred, to which they responded they knew what had happened as Brand was making jokes about his misconduct on the podcast.

The episode, which aired on June 21, 2008, and that BBC obtained a recording of, comedian Matt Morgan tells Brand in an exchange, “It’s been 25 minutes since he showed his willy to a lady,” later adding that “he got told off for ringing a bell, minutes later he’s showing his willy.” Brand can be heard laughing throughout the exchange.

The woman reportedly never made a formal complaint, citing that she hoped someone from the BBC would have reached out after hearing the podcast interview, as well as fears over the impact officially reporting the interaction would have had on her and her family.

BBC management was informed about the incident in 2019, though no formal action was taken. In response to Thursday’s story, a spokesperson for the BBC told The Hollywood Reporter, that it was “sorry to hear” of the allegations and is looking into them.

“We are conducting a review to look at allegations of this nature and if the woman who has shared her story is willing to speak to us, we would be very keen to hear from her and anyone else who may have information,” the statement continued. “A key part of the review is to understand what complaints were made at the time, if there was knowledge of Russell Brand’s conduct while he worked on BBC radio, and what was done as a result. We will of course speak to the bureau team and anyone who was working there in 2008 as part of this.”

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to reps for Brand and Morgan.

The allegation follows a major report from U.K.’s The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, in which multiple women accused the British comedian and actor of sexual assault and rape in incidents that spanned 2006 to 2013. In response, the BBC has launched an internal investigation into Brand and has removed content featuring the comedian after assessing “that it now falls below public expectations.”

Brand’s live U.K. comedy tour was canceled this week, and just days after the initial investigation published, Met Police reported that they had received another allegation, related to a 2003 incident. Other content providers, including Paramount+ have also moved to remove content featuring Brand.

The comedian previously denied all allegations in a social media statement he posted a day ahead of the investigation published online, stating that he “absolutely refute[s]” them before calling them part of “coordinated media attacks.”

“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. “Now during that time of promiscuity, 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.”

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