Russell Brand Accused of ‘Rape, Sexual Assault, Emotional Abuse’ in New Report; Comedian ‘Absolutely Refutes’ Allegations

K.J. Yossman
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Russell Brand has been accused of “rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse” in a new report by The Sunday Times of London.

The joint investigation with The Times of London and Channel 4’s documentary team “Dispatches” published on Saturday afternoon in the U.K. “Dispatches” will air its 90-minute documentary on the allegations on Saturday evening on U.K. network Channel 4. “Five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the program,” said a rep for the show.

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According to The Sunday Times, the British comedian, who originally found fame as a host on MTV U.K. before starring in Hollywood films such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek,” has been accused of sexual assault by four women between 2006 and 2013.

He was married to singer Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.

The newspaper reported that one alleged victim said Brand assaulted her when she was 16 (he was then in his 30s) during a three-month “emotionally and sexually abusive” relationship that included one incident where he “forced his penis down her throat,” causing her to choke. In another incident she said he removed a condom during intercourse without her knowledge. The woman also said Brand nicknamed her “the child,” asked her to read passages from Vladimir Nabokov novel “Lolita” during their time together and once kissed her mother “on the mouth.”

Another alleged victim told the outlet she was raped by the comedian in his Los Angeles home in 2012 while a third, who was working with him in L.A., said he sexually assaulted her at his West Hollywood home in 2013 and threatened to take legal action if she ever spoke about the incident publicly.

The Sunday Times has anonymized the alleged victims’ names.

Other allegations detailed in the report include:

  • A 24-year-old runner claimed Brand once “flashed his penis” when she went into his dressing room and “insinuated that she could give him oral sex.”

  • Brand’s former personal assistant, Helen Berger, told the newspaper she witnessed Brand showing “intimate pictures of women” to his friends, including pictures of a woman she knew.

  • A female comedian said Brand would repeatedly “bite my face” whenever she saw him while a male comedian, Daniel Slott, told the newspaper he was aware his female counterparts had been “warning each other about Russell” for years.

Brand, who is due to perform a live show at the Wembley Park Theatre in London on Saturday evening, pre-emptively denied the allegations in a YouTube video titled “So, This Is Happening,” which he posted on Friday evening U.K. time. In the video Brand said he “absolutely refutes” the “litany of astonishing, rather baroque, attacks.”

“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream media, 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. 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.”

The Sunday Times reported that after providing Brand’s lawyers with the allegations they said they were “not in a position” to reply and that further communication went unanswered.

Brand’s agent Tavistock Wood dropped him as a client this week in the wake of the accusations of rape and sexual assault made against him. In The Sunday Times report, one woman claims that she contacted Brand’s literary agent, Tavistock Wood co-founder Angharad Wood, in 2020 and informed the agent of her experience with the comedian when she was 16 years old.

The woman, who was given the pseudonym Alice by The Sunday Times, said she wanted an apology, but never received one. Instead, she heard back from Brand’s lawyer, who denied her allegations in a “very aggressive” manner.

In a statement, Tavistock Wood told Variety, “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”

Brand has encountered a number of controversies during his career. In his numerous autobiographical works he has described how he was fired from his MTV hosting gig after coming to work the day after 9/11 dressed as Osama bin Laden and bringing his drug dealer to the studio. He has also written at length about his prolific drug use and sex life.

In 2002 Brand was reportedly sacked from U.K. radio station Xfm for reading pornographic material on air and in 2008 he was suspended and then resigned from his BBC Radio 2 show after he left voice mails for “Fawlty Towers” actor Andrew Sachs saying he’d had a sexual relationship with Sachs’ granddaughter.

In 2019, Brand appeared as a celebrity guest on a spin-off version of “The Great British Bake-Off” during which he cooked biscuits in the shape of his wife’s nether regions.

Over recent years, Brand has moved away from mainstream media and entertainment, instead reinventing himself as a “wellness guru” via direct-to-audience engagement through social media and live events, where he frequently attacks the media and political establishments. He has been accused of peddling conspiracy theories and COVID-19 misinformation.

Variety has reached out to Brand and his reps, past and present, for comment.

Read Brand’s full YouTube denial below:

“This isn’t the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption, because in this story I am the news.

I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters — or a letter and an email — one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff like my Community Festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque, attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.

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. 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.

And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question is there another agenda at play, particularly when we’ve seen coordinated media attacks before like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language. I’m aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while ‘Watch out, Russell, they’re coming
for you, you’re getting too close to the truth. Russell Brand did not kill himself.’

I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles: ‘Russell Brand’s a conspiracy theorist,’ ‘Russell Brand’s right wing.’ I’m aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know, for ages and ages. It’s been clear to me — or at least it feels to me –like there’s a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices and I mean my voice along with your voice.

I don’t mind them using my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations. Also it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narrative that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct apparently in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.

Now I don’t want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together. We are obviously going to look into this matter because it’s very, very serious. In the meantime I want you to stay close, stay awake, but more important than any of that if you can please stay free.”

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