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"Variety: Russell Brand Accused of ‘Rape, Sexual Assault, Emotional Abuse’ in New Report; Comedian ‘Absolutely Refutes’ -- (edited)"
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Original Times article -- (edited)
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Sep 16 '23, 08:22
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Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
new
Four women, including one who was just 16, make allegations after an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches
Rosamund Urwin
, Media Editor |
Charlotte Wace
|
Paul Morgan-Bentley
, Head of Investigations
Saturday September 16 2023, 4.00pm BST, The Sunday Times
The comedian and actor Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse during a seven-year period at the height of his fame.
Four women have alleged sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013, while he was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and then an actor in Hollywood films. Others have made a range of accusations about Brand’s controlling, abusive and predatory behaviour.
Brand denied the allegations and said his relationships have all been consensual.
The findings come from a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.
One woman alleges that Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home. She was treated at a rape crisis centre on the same day, according to medical records. Text messages show that in the hours after leaving his house, she told Brand that she had been scared by him and felt taken advantage of, adding: “When a girl say[s] NO it means no.” Brand replied saying he was “very sorry”.
A second woman alleges that Brand assaulted her when he was 31 and she was 16 and still at school. She said he referred to her as “the child” during an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship that lasted for about three months, and that Brand once “forced his penis down her throat”, making her choke. She says she tried to push him off and said she had to punch him in the stomach to make him stop.
A third woman claims that he sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles, and that he threatened to take legal action if she told anyone else about her allegation.
The fourth described being sexually assaulted by Brand and him being physically and emotionally abusive towards her.
All said they felt ready to speak only after being approached by reporters. Several said they felt compelled to do so given Brand’s newfound prominence as an online wellness influencer, with millions of followers on YouTube and other sites.
The others have accused him of physical and emotional abuse, sexual harassment and bullying.
Most of the women, who do not know each other, have chosen to remain anonymous.
Over the past few years, reporters have interviewed hundreds of sources who knew or worked with Brand: ex-girlfriends and their friends and family, comedians and other celebrities, people who worked with him on radio and TV, and senior staff at the BBC, Channel 4 and other media organisations.
Along with these interviews reporters have seen private emails and text messages, submitted freedom of information requests, viewed medical and therapists’ notes, scrutinised Brand’s books and interviews, and watched and listened to hundreds of hours of his shows on the BBC, Channel 4 and YouTube to corroborate allegations.
Brand, who is now 48, has managed to maintain his fame for the past two decades through reinvention — first as a stand-up comedian known for debauchery, before becoming a primetime Channel 4 TV host, BBC radio star, Hollywood actor and, most recently, a wellness guru and anti-establishment influencer with millions of followers online.
Throughout his career, Brand’s material has acknowledged his sex addiction and he has often publicly joked about his predatory behaviour and sex life.
There were rumours of more sinister behaviour — said to be discussed as an “open secret” by senior TV and radio executives, and among female comedians who warned each other of his behaviour — but the women involved previously felt unable to speak out.
Their stories — now told publicly for the first time — shine a light on Brand’s mistreatment of women behind closed doors, and on the industries that enabled him.
The Times and The Sunday Times gave Brand eight days within which to reply to detailed allegations, including information to enable him to recall the alleged incidents. Lawyers for Brand initially said that they were not in a position to provide any response to the allegations because we had posed a “large litany of questions” and had intentionally chosen to anonymise the names of the women. They characterised this as deliberate and part of a pre-conceived strategy aimed at damaging their client. They said that publication was a “concerted campaign” and their client believes that there is a “deeply concerning agenda to all this, namely the fact that he is an alternative media broadcaster competing with mainstream media”. Pressed to provide a full response, the same lawyers did not reply.
When given further opportunity to respond, Brand broadcast a statement on his YouTube channel saying “amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute”. He said his relationships have always been consensual. He accused the mainstream media of a co-ordinated attack and said that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives.
The Sunday Times asked his lawyer for the evidence referred to but no answer was provided.
• Russell Brand’s statement in full
‘He sent a car to my school to take me out of lessons’
As her taxi approached Russell Brand’s home, Alice remembers the driver begging her not to go inside. Recognising the destination, he had started to ask questions. Alice admitted she was 16 and still in school.
She says the driver replied that his daughter was the same age and entreated Alice: “Please, I’m asking you not to go in there, you could be my little girl, and I would want someone to do this for her.” He offered to take her home without charge, but Alice insisted she was fine. “He had just such a sad look in his eyes,” she recalls.
Alice, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, now realises that she wasn’t fine. During a relationship that lasted for about three months when Brand was a BBC radio presenter, she says that he referred to her as “the child” and alleges that he became increasingly controlling, and then emotionally and sexually abusive.
Brand, then 30, sent a car to her secondary school to take her out of lessons and to his home, she says, and asked her to save his name in her phone as “Carly” to deceive her parents. Brand’s management knew that he had a teenage girlfriend and advised him not to be seen with her in public, she says. Alice alleges that Brand once forced his penis down her throat, making her choke, and that after trying to push him off he only stopped after she hit him in the stomach. She says she was visibly upset after the incident.
Brand made his name in comedy in the early 2000s — and also achieved the status of London’s most lascivious lothario. After he gave up drugs in 2002, Brand filled that void with sex. In 2005, he received treatment for sex addiction at a clinic in the US. His womanising ways — he once said he could sleep with 80 women in a month — saw him crowned “Shagger of the Year” by The Sun three times, have relationships with some of the world’s most beautiful women including Kate Moss, and marry the pop star Katy Perry in 2010 (they divorced in 2012).
When Alice met Brand in 2006, he was becoming a household name as the host of Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth and a BBC radio presenter; she was 16, recovering from an eating disorder and had never had a boyfriend.
Brand on the set of Big Brother’s Little Brother in 2006 — the same year he met Alice
Brand on the set of Big Brother’s Little Brother in 2006 — the same year he met Alice
REX FEATURES
He approached her in Leicester Square after she had been shopping at Topshop in Oxford Circus and he had been working at a nearby studio. Alice recognised him from TV and had previously seen him do stand-up.
“He took my shopping bags from me which was quite disarming and proceeded to go through my purchases and critique them, and then he took one dress out and said to me, ‘You’re going to wear this on our date this week’,” she recalls.
Brand asked her to dinner and she later told her mother, who made Alice text Brand to tell him her age, assuming it would put him off. It didn’t. Alice’s mother was very upset but did not feel she could control who her daughter met.
“I remember wearing a red wiggle dress and big platform shoes and had my hair blown out and was wearing makeup,” Alice now remembers. “But I didn’t look like a woman by any means. I was a child that had got dressed up for dinner.” On their first date, she claims Brand asked her as soon as they met to confirm she was definitely 16, saying: “I don’t give a f*** if you’re 12 . . . I need to know where I stand legally.”
During the earliest stages of their relationship, Alice says Brand was “very charming and very attentive”, sending her “verbose” messages. She remembers feeling “giddy” and “special”.
Before the first time they had sex, Alice says she told him she was a virgin and claims he was instantly aroused. “He was like, ‘Oh my God, my baby, my baby’, and picked me up and cradled me in his arms like a child and was stroking my hair. He’s like, ‘You’re like my little dolly.’” She says he became “preoccupied” with her being innocent and pure.
She claims that there was a large mirror on the wall and she remembers during sex he raised his arm above his head “like this power stance, like he was conquering something”.
Over the following weeks, Brand referred to her as “the child”, asked her to read Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and coached her on what to say to her parents when he wanted to see her, Alice says. Although Alice was over the age of consent in the UK, she and a family member who has also spoken to The Sunday Times to corroborate her story both describe Brand’s behaviour as “grooming”. Alice says he suggested how she could deceive her parents into allowing her to visit him, and claims that he gave her “scripts” on how to lie to them. She also alleges that he told her not to trust her friends and that they would “all be looking to make money from it” if she revealed she was seeing him. “It was isolating,” she said.
“Russell engaged in the behaviours of a groomer, looking back, but I didn’t even know what that was then, or what that looked like,” she says. Alice recalls that Brand told her never to send him sexual images, and she believed this was because of her age.
Alice accuses Brand of being controlling. She says that he once ran a bath for her and demanded that she stay in it while he went out for about an hour. Another time, Alice alleges that Brand removed the condom during sex without her knowing.
When he invited her over on his 31st birthday, Alice’s mother insisted on driving her, to emphasise to him that this was a girl with loving parents. When Alice’s mother went to meet Brand on the doorstep, Alice says that he blocked the door and “leant down and kissed my mother on the mouth”. She says that afterwards her mother was “very, very upset” at Brand’s behaviour and pleaded with Alice to come home with her, but Alice chose to stay.
Towards the end of the relationship, Alice says that Brand sexually assaulted her. She says: “I was sat up in the bed up against the headboard, and he forced his penis down my throat and I couldn’t breathe. It was just choking me and I couldn’t breathe, and I was pushing him away and he wasn’t backing off at all.”
She says: “I ended up having to punch him really hard in the stomach to get him off. I was crying and he said, ‘Oh I only wanted to see your mascara run anyway.’ Then I knew at that point that he didn’t care about hurting me physically or emotionally . . . It shouldn’t take you having to punch someone and to wind them to get them off you. It shouldn’t be a physical fight.”
As Alice lay on one side of the bed after the attack, she alleges that he climbed on top of her, held open her mouth and drooled into it. “I was gagging and trying to fight him off me, but he’s lying on top of me, so I can’t,” she alleges. “My limbs are trapped underneath him and I just thought, ‘Why are you doing this? It can’t even be any sexual gratification in this.’ And then he held my mouth shut and made me swallow it and so I was just gagging and crying.”
The relationship ended when Brand invited her over one day, and she arrived to find another woman in his bed. “I was so angry, and I said to him, ‘Why would you do this to me? This is so humiliating.’”
Alice has decided to speak out because she now believes that she was too young to be able to consent to a relationship with an adult man, and that the law should be changed to protect those under 18. “My mum still feels like she failed me in some way in allowing this to happen, but she had no recourse at all,” she says. “It shouldn’t be legal for a 16-year-old to have a relationship with a man in their thirties. There should be something in place to protect children.”
She also wants the entertainment industry to change. For many years, Brand has been applauded for his jokes describing how he has manipulated women for sex.
“I think he was very skilful in the start of making his identity be, ‘I’m the womaniser. I’m a sex addict. I’m inappropriate but it’s all just a joke, it’s funny’,” Alice claims, “It’s a smokescreen for a lot more of his dark behaviour.”
‘We felt we were working as a pimp for him’
During the early years of Brand’s TV career as a Channel 4 presenter, there were repeated incidents which raise questions about his interactions with young women while working for them.
TV researchers and runners who worked on Channel 4 shows during this period allege that Brand would get staff to approach young female audience members so he could meet them after filming.
Two former crew members, working on Big Brother’s EFourum, a live spin-off debate show presented by Brand that would become Big Brother’s Big Mouth, separately claim this made them feel like they were working as a “pimp” for Brand.
The company Endemol was commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth
The company Endemol was commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth
WENN
One says she remembers women calling her in tears after feeling they had been treated poorly by Brand.
Another claims there were occasions she had to collect Brand from a hotel room and he appeared in his underwear and suggested having a “quickie” and she could not tell if he was joking or not. She says Brand’s behaviour was widely discussed by those working on the TV set.
One runner, Rachel, who was 24 at the time, says she once walked into Brand’s dressing room and claims he flashed his penis at her. She alleges that Brand insinuated that she could give him oral sex. She was shocked and refused. She felt unable to tell anyone about what happened and was worried that if she complained she would lose her job.
She says Brand continued to pursue her and some time after he asked her to visit his flat. When she arrived they kissed and had sex. They began a relationship, but she alleges he told her to keep it a “complete secret”. She claims Brand told her he “had it written into his contract that he wasn’t allowed to have any sexual contact with anyone working on Big Brother”. Endemol said they have reviewed the contract and Brand did not have a clause pertaining to sexual relationships.
A researcher claims Brand’s behaviour while working on EFourum and Big Brother’s Big Mouth was reported to production managers at Endemol, the company commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the shows. They allege that they complained about Brand pursuing audience members for sex but claims their concerns were dismissed. The researcher remembers being told by a talent manager: “It’s what happens with the talent. Boys will be boys. It’s not a big deal.”
A spokesman for Banijay UK, which bought Endemol in 2020, said it had reviewed files and correspondence and could find no records of issues about Brand being raised formally or discussed with Endemol.
It said: “We take our duty of care to our cast, crew and staff extremely seriously. While the legacy company, Endemol, did have a code of conduct, support policies and escalation procedures in place during the period in question, they were not as robust as our current processes. We are sorry these women did not feel supported and protected while working on these productions and in light of these serious allegations encourage to them to contact us in confidence.”
Brand would regularly have sex with women he met at events. Two who went back to his home on separate occasions claim he became threatening and shouted at them when they refused to have intercourse with him. One left his home in tears.
Helen Berger, who worked as Brand’s personal assistant in 2006, says that during her interview for the job she told one of his managers that she had a girlfriend.
The manager later told her that her being gay was seen as a “plus” for the job. She believes the manager “wanted to make sure that I would be safe. He just wanted a purely platonic situation.”
Helen Berger: I saw him showing intimate pictures of women to his friends
Helen Berger: I saw him showing intimate pictures of women to his friends
Berger says that Brand was a “narcissist” and would often only wear underwear while she worked. She also remembers Brand openly showing his friends intimate pictures of women.
Once, while in Edinburgh for the festival and in a bar, she saw Brand showing pictures like these to friends. She says: “I leant in. As he’s going through these pictures he gets to a picture of somebody I knew. It did something to me. It made me feel really sick to my stomach. These are women who aren’t expecting to be shown to the dude’s friends.”
Liliana dalla Piana, a highly experienced celebrity assistant who worked for Brand between December 2007 and January 2008, says that she believed she was hired by his managers because she was “nearer to his mother’s age” than his. She recalls that at her interview, Brand said that he “like[d] to walk around with nothing on” or “sometimes just a long kaftan” with nothing underneath. Dalla Piana remembers replying: “I’ve got a son who’s older than you. I’ve seen it all.”
Brand would go on to be hired by the BBC — first on BBC 6 Music in April 2006 before he was moved to Radio 2 that November. He often courted controversy, culminating in the “Sachsgate” scandal. In October 2008, Brand and his co-presenter Jonathan Ross made prank calls to the actor Andrew Sachs, who had played Manuel in Fawlty Towers, leaving a lewd message on his answer phone. Brand hinted at a relationship with Sachs’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, prompting Ross to declare: “He f***ed your granddaughter” — which Sachs had not known about.
When the scandal emerged, Gordon Brown, then the prime minister, criticised the broadcast, and both Brand and the station’s controller Lesley Douglas resigned from the BBC, which was fined £150,000 by Ofcom. The BBC admitted that editorial standards had been broken.
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How The Times and Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
‘He’s grabbing at my underwear, I’m telling him to get off’
Following the scandal, Brand moved to Los Angeles, where he focused on a Hollywood film career and a new American TV show. He remained in LA after his marriage to Perry failed in 2012.
At a party one night he met Nadia, a businesswoman who was then in her thirties. They exchanged numbers and Brand later got in touch and they began texting and talking on the phone. She said they met up in June 2012 at his house in LA and went on to have consensual sex, but she was unsettled by his “glazed-over look”.
“He does this thing when he glazes over . . . I don’t know what’s going on in his head,” she says. “It was fine, but it was a weird first-time experience with someone when you’re having sex with them for the first time.”
During one text exchange Brand suggested that Nadia “bring a friend”.
They then met again in the early hours of the morning of July 1, when she arrived at his house after he had pleaded with her to come over.
“When I walked in — the door was unlocked and I just walked in,” Nadia says. “He comes running out of the bedroom naked. And I’m kind of taken aback. I’ve got a bag on my shoulder, a little dress and a coat on top.”
Nadia says Brand took her to a wall and kissed her and made a comment, something along the lines of: “I’ll keep you safe.” He then told her that “a friend” was already in the bedroom and that he wanted her to join them, according to Nadia.
“I’m like, no, that’s not happening, I don’t care, that’s not happening, we’re not doing that,” she says. “I tried to get away from him and I slipped away from the wall. And then I went to another wall that had a painting on it. A huge painting. And my bag got actually stuck underneath that, and it’s still on my arm. And at this point he’s grabbing at my underwear, pulling it to the side.”
Nadia alleges that she told Brand to get off her and that she wanted to leave, but he carried on. “I’m stuck underneath the painting and he’s pushing up against me,” she says. “He’s a lot taller than me. And he has that glazed look in his eye again. And I can’t move. And I told him, ‘Get off, get off.’” Nadia claims that Brand pushed her up against the wall and raped her, without a condom.
Brand finally finished and she says she pushed him away.
“And then he blocks the door that I’ve come into because he doesn’t want me going,” Nadia says. “He’s like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘No I’m not OK, you need to get away from me.’ And he’s like, ‘Let’s calm down.’”
Nadia says that Brand eventually stepped away from the door he had been blocking after Nadia told him she wanted to use the bathroom.
“I ran out and I jumped in my car — thank God I didn’t park in his driveway — and booked it out of there,” she says. “That was it. I sat on the road a little bit longer. I was in a daze.”
At 3.29am, Brand sent Nadia a text message. He wrote: “I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person. X.” He tried phoning her at 3.51am, but the call went unanswered.
Nadia says she was up most of the night. She did not reply to Brand’s text until 10.59am. She wrote that he had taken advantage of her and “scared the shit out of me”. She wrote in her text to Brand: “Do you know how scary [you are] when that glaze look comes over. When a girl say[s] NO it means no. Do I have to go and get myself tested?”
Brand replied that he was “very sorry” and wrote: “You don’t need to get tested. I will make this up to you somehow with live [sic] and kindness. Not my original idea which was more sex. You’ve been lovely to me and I’m embarrassed by my behaviour. Sorry. X.”
The US phone number that Brand used to send the messages has been verified by multiple sources.
Nadia, meanwhile, had told a close friend what had happened and she took her to the Rape Treatment Center (RTC) at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center that same day.
She has shared a full copy of her treatment records, which state that she provided her underwear and other samples as evidence, which were frozen. An officer from the Los Angeles Police Department was alerted by the centre, according to the notes, but she chose not to make a police report — saying to the centre she “didn’t think my words would mean anything up against his”. The notes also state that “she was worried that, if her assailant’s name is somehow released, then her name will be dragged through the dirt”.
Nadia had therapy at the clinic for the following five months. During her therapy sessions, records show that Nadia was contemplating criminal or civil proceedings before ultimately deciding against it. However, she wrote Brand a letter “hoping to regain some of her power in the process”, her notes said, and she says she sent it to his house.
In the letter, she asked: “Do you know what you put me through? My body through? . . . You scared the shit out of me on July 1st, I thought in any situation I would be strong enough to fight someone off . . . You completely broke me down.”
Brand is accused of rape on July 1, 2012. Six weeks later he performed at the Olympics Closing Ceremony in London
Brand is accused of rape on July 1, 2012. Six weeks later he performed at the Olympics Closing Ceremony in London
GETTY IMAGES
‘I was fighting and screaming so hard’
Brand kept building his career in America. The following year, another woman claims she was the victim of a sexual assault at Brand’s house.
Phoebe, who was in her twenties, says she met Brand at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting before they started working together, and that she had a brief sexual relationship with him, which had ended by the time of the alleged attack in early 2013.
Phoebe says the team working on a project with Brand at the time worked from different locations, including from his property in West Hollywood. She was at his house when she realised that a member of his staff had gone out and they were alone.
She describes being trapped in a bedroom and realising that Brand wanted to have sex with her. She says she can’t remember whether he was naked or in his underwear, but that he ended up naked at some point and started chasing her.
She claims he “grabbed me and got me on the bed”. She claims he tried to kiss her and remove her clothes as he pinned her down. Phoebe says “And I saw something come over his eyes, I swear to God, like, black, his eyes had no more colour, they were black, like the devil. Like a different person literally entered his body.” She was fully clothed.
“I was screaming, and I was like, ‘What are you doing, stop, please, you’re my friend, I love you, please don’t do this, I don’t want to do this’ . . . I think he had his hands down my trousers but I was fighting so hard and I was screaming so hard, hoping that I could get through somehow.” She says: “I don’t know what the actual definition of ‘sexual assault’ is, but it feels like that. He didn’t rape me.”
She says she kept begging him to get off her and eventually he relented, at which point she says he “flipped” and was “super angry”. Phoebe says Brand was shouting “f*** you” and “you’re fired” and she says she fled Brand’s home in tears, stopping only to grab her shoes before running barefoot to her car.
As she left, Phoebe says she passed a group of people who had arrived at the house for a meeting about the project. Years later, she says she met one of the people who had been in this group. She says: “He pulled me aside and he said to me, ‘I have never forgiven myself for not running in that house to save you. I heard you screaming. And I didn’t know what to do. And we were all so scared of him. And I didn’t do anything. And I am sorry.’” The Times attempted to contact this person but he did not respond.
Phoebe, who told friends what had happened to her, felt forced to return to work in the days afterwards, but she claims that Brand, after becoming aware of her allegation, cornered her and threatened her with legal action. Phoebe did not formally report the incident as she feared that her career would be affected. Three separate sources confirmed that she had told them about her allegation at the time, while two more were also aware of it.
A short time later, Brand left the US and moved back to the UK. It was then that serious allegations about his conduct behind closed doors first became public. In 2014, an ex-girlfriend, Jordan Martin, wrote about their relationship in a self-published book, kNot: Entanglement with a Celebrity, in which she renames Brand “Randall Grand” and herself “Dina”. She declined to be interviewed for this investigation due to personal family circumstances, but has confirmed that she stands by her account in the book and says that it is an accurate depiction of their relationship. Brand never challenged her on its content.
Brand and Martin had a six-month relationship from February 2007 during which they briefly lived together. In the book, Martin describes being sexually assaulted by Brand and Brand being physically and emotionally abusive towards her.
The alleged assault occurred at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester. She describes how Brand became angry when he found out she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend, snatching a phone from her, ripping the case apart and pulling out the battery.
Martin writes about how she then walked away from Brand, and was standing at a sink in the room when he came up behind her. In her book, she describes how Brand “does not say a word. He stands so close to her. He slides his hand down the front of her low hanging jeans, into her underwear and forces a finger inside of her.” Martin writes about how she was “not ready for this intrusion” and did not find it “sensual or pleasant”. After that, Brand allegedly walked out of the room silently, leaving her “feeling confused, uncomfortable and a little stunned”.
She also describes how he once forced her to brush her teeth so hard that her gums bled, so she would taste “anonymous” to him. Martin writes that Brand “pushes boundaries, controlling other people to fulfil personal perversions for the sake of dominance, or for the sake of something”.
‘Alarming displays of aggression’
Brand’s attitude towards women became an open secret in radio and TV production, according to sources.
Many felt the BBC should have been awake to the concerns about Brand’s on-air behaviour well before the Sachsgate scandal.
While hosting his BBC radio show on 6 Music he and his co-host, Matt Morgan, would sometimes undress in the studio and encourage guests to do likewise.
When contacted by The Times and Sunday Times, Morgan said: “I stopped working with Russell Brand several years ago. During the time I worked with him, I was never aware of any allegations of serious sexual misconduct against him. I absolutely condemn all forms of mistreatment of women. Looking back on the time I spent working on radio at the BBC, I am regretful to learn that a show I was part of made colleagues uncomfortable at times.”
In July 2008 Ofcom, the communications regulator, fined the BBC £17,500 for a serious breach of its code after finding that Brand’s show on 6 Music had faked a competition winner.
During other Radio 2 episodes, Brand made a series of sexual remarks about the newsreader Andrea Simmons, describing her on air as “erotic” and a “sex bomb”, and telling listeners that he would like to “go under the desk” while she was reading the news. Several times after this it is implied that Brand was forced to apologise by BBC production staff.
In May 2007, Brand called Jimmy Savile, who suggested the pair could meet if Brand brought along a sister. Brand doesn’t have a sister, so instead offered to bring a female employee — agreeing, on Savile’s request, that she should be naked.
“I’ve got a personal assistant,” he said. “And part of her job description is that anyone I demand she greet, meet, massages, she has to do it. She’s very attractive, Jimmy.” This was four years before Savile’s death and five years before details of the Jim’ll Fix It presenter’s crimes were exposed.
According to insiders who were working for BBC radio at the time, complaints were made about Brand’s behaviour in the studios to Lesley Douglas, then the BBC’s controller for Radio 2 and 6 Music, but nothing appeared to be done as a result.
In December 2007, another serious complaint was made by BBC staff to Lesley Douglas about Brand’s behaviour in the Radio 2 studio. Sources who were involved said the complaint was made after an “alarming display of aggression and disrespect” by Brand in the studio, which included Brand hurling objects across the studio “in fits of rage” and “urinating in a bottle in full view of everyone”. Brand had done this, the sources said, in front of production staff and guests, including a young person who “appeared to be a minor” and had been sent to appear on Radio 2 by a charity. This alleged complaint and any others that had been made were not mentioned in subsequent official reports into Sachsgate.
A spokesman for the BBC said it has clear expectations and policies around conduct at work and had taken the Jonathan Ross Radio 2 incident incredibly seriously.
He said: “We hope that demonstrates that the BBC takes issues seriously and is prepared to act. Indeed, we would add that in addition to acting on the serious editorial breach at the time, the BBC has, over successive years, evolved its approach to how it manages talent and indeed how it deals with complaints or issues raised.
“We will always listen to people if they come forward with any concerns, on any issue related to any individual working at the BBC — past or present.”
Brand and Jonathan Ross issued an apology after the “Sachsgate” scandal in 2008
Brand and Jonathan Ross issued an apology after the “Sachsgate” scandal in 2008
YOUTUBE
Lawyers representing Douglas said: “Ms Douglas did not at any time encourage, enable and/or fail herself to take any adequate steps within her power with regard to the conduct of Russell Brand of which she was aware. She is presently unable to provide any further information which may be relevant to the matters raised in this article due to the obligations owed by her to her former employer.”
Alice, who later worked at Channel 4, recalled a meeting in late 2013 or early 2014 during which Brand was pitched as a host of a show but concerns about his behaviour were flagged. “The solution that was offered was that we would take the female staff off the crew — women that have worked hard to get into this industry — now can’t work on particular shows because of fear that they might be assaulted or harassed. I was in disbelief.”
Brand continued to be given opportunities by mainstream broadcasters in the UK, including on Channel 4. In 2019 he appeared on a celebrity edition of Bake Off. He baked biscuits inspired by the genitals of his wife, Laura Gallacher.
A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 is appalled to learn of these deeply troubling allegations including behaviour alleged to have taken place on programmes made for Channel 4 between 2004 and 2007. We are determined to understand the full nature of what went on. We have carried out extensive document searches and have found no evidence to suggest the alleged incidents were brought to the attention of Channel 4. We will continue to review this in light of any further information we receive, including the accounts of those affected individuals. We will be asking the production company who produced the programmes for Channel 4 to investigate these allegations and report their findings properly and satisfactorily to us.”
It said that in the many years since the incidents emerged there had been extensive change in Channel 4’s management and it was committed to ensuring the TV industry is safe and inclusive.
Brand appeared on a celebrity edition of Bake Off on Channel 4 in 2019
Brand appeared on a celebrity edition of Bake Off on Channel 4 in 2019
A spokesman for John Noel Management, the agency that represented Brand from 2002 to 2017, said that for legal reasons (on which “they cannot elaborate”), they were not in a position to respond to questions.
Female comedians have warned for years
For this investigation, journalists were in touch with dozens of comedians who have worked with Brand. A female comedian said that in the early 2000s when they gigged together, Brand chased her around backstage and bit her on the face, despite her making clear she was uncomfortable. “Whenever he saw me, he would grab me and bite my face and it was coupled up with this weird, horrible energy,” she recalls. “I said to him, ‘I don’t like this’ and he still did it so much before he stopped. It was him crossing boundaries.”
She also witnessed his behaviour at parties: “He was like the Predator [from the 1987 sci-fi film] — he would show up and you’d see him scan the room: who he hadn’t slept with, who he was going to sleep with. He should never have got to Hollywood – his behaviour should have stopped that — [but] he was able to become a Hollywood star and do so well out of it.”
Daniel Sloss was the only comedian willing to speak on the record and using his real name. He says he first heard rumours about Brand’s behaviour on the comedy circuit more than ten years ago.
Sloss says that female comedians have set up online groups that they use to warn each other of comedians and others working in the comedy industry who they have had unpleasant experiences with, including predatory behaviour. Sloss says: “I know for many, many years that women have been warning each other about Russell.”
He said: “I know there are comedians who have made references in jokes to Russell’s alleged crimes and have either been asked or told not to do those jokes any more.”
In recent years, Brand has reinvented himself again. He promotes himself as a wellness guru to an estimated 28 million followers across social media, podcasts and a live festival. He has become known for discussing conspiracy theories, while offering advice on subjects such as relationships and addiction.
The comedian has rebranded himself as a wellness guru and appeared at his festival in July this year
The comedian has rebranded himself as a wellness guru and appeared at his festival in July this year
In late 2020, Alice, who is now happily married, contacted Brand’s literary agent, Angharad Wood, the co-founder of Tavistock Wood which is owned by the talent agency Curtis Brown. Alice says she told Brand’s representatives what he did to her when she was 16 because she hoped he had changed, she wanted an apology and — at the very least — for them to know the type of man they were representing. She says she was told Brand was away at a wellness retreat but that she would get a response.
Alice eventually did hear back — from a lawyer acting for Brand, who denied her allegations. “It was very aggressive . . . said very clearly I was after money and implied that it was almost blackmail that I was doing,” she says. “I’ve never mentioned money. [The lawyer was] the only person that’s ever mentioned money.”
She replied to Brand’s lawyer, emphasising that she was sharing the truth and had never asked for money. “I have spent too long recovering from these acts to have them dismissed or to be intimidated into invalidating my own experiences,” she wrote, adding: “To even imply that there is a quantifiable amount that would compensate for sexual assault is frankly insulting.”
It would take his representatives almost three years to say they believed Alice. After we contacted them last week, Brand was suddenly removed from the websites of Curtis Brown and Tavistock Wood. The latter then said: “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. Tavistock Wood has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”
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