In a shocking expose by the Sunday Times, four women have publicly accused comedian Russell Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse during the years 2006 to 2013, when his career was on its peak. The publication said all the women had chosen to remain anonymous, and felt ready to speak after being approached by reporters.
A joint investigation carried out by Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatch said that two of the women, Los Angeles residents, alleged being raped and sexually assaulted by the comedian, with the second woman revealing that Brand threatened to take legal action against her if she went public with her allegations.
Another woman revealed she was 16-years-old when Brand assaulted her, at a time when hewas in his early 30s, referring to her as a “child” during their emotionally abusive and controlling relationship.
“Russell engaged in the behaviors of a groomer, looking back, but I didn’t even know what that was then, or what that looked like,” the woman said.
The fourth woman alleged she was assaulted by the comedian.
A day before the allegations by The Times were to be released, Russell released a video where he slammed the “serious criminal allegations” that were about to be made against him.
The former husband of singer Katy Perry said in the video released on X, formerly Twitter:
“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.”
In light of the rape accusations, several users have reshared a clip from a 2013 Vogue interview of Katy Perry, who married and then divorced the comedian in 2012. Brand had publicly divorced the singer with a breakup text, which was shown in the singer’s ‘Part Of Me’ documentary.
“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,” the ‘Roar’ singer said. “I let go and I was like: This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me. So I have moved on from that.”
The BBC have meanwhile responded to the allegations, saying that they were “urgently looking into the issues raised” by the allegations. Brand worked as a radio presenter for the channel in 2006 and 2008, and The Times quoted a complaint made to the organisation’s management about the comedian’s “alarming display of aggression and disrespect”.
Channel 4 released a statement saying that they “asked the production company who produced the programmes for Channel 4 to investigate these allegations and report their findings properly and satisfactorily to us”.
The organisation added they were conducting an internal investigation and encouraged “anyone who is aware of such behaviour to contact us directly.”
