Russell Brand has denied any criminal wrongdoing as the U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times reported that four women have accused him of sexual assault, including rape.
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor and comedian issued a video statement on YouTube Sept. 15, hours before the outlet published its report from what it said was a joint investigation conducted with daily sister outlet The Times and the U.K.’s Channel 4.
“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,” Brand said. “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.” The 48-year-old continued, “I don’t mind them using my books and my standup to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations.” The Sunday Times reported Sept. 16 that the alleged incidents took place between 2006 and 2013. Brand was married to Katy Perry, who has not commented on the allegations, between 2010 and 2012.
The newspaper reported that one of the four alleged victims said Brand raped her when she was in her 30s in Los Angeles, and that another woman alleged that the Get Him to the Greek star sexually assaulted her when she was 16-which is the minimum age of consent in the U.K.-and that they were in an emotionally abusive and controlling relationship for about three months.
NBC has not independently confirmed any of the allegations against Brand and an attorney for the comic declined to comment on the allegations when reached by the outlet. Later on Sept. 16, Channel 4 aired a special titled Russel Brand: In Plain Sight, which features five women who allege that Brand raped, sexually assaulted or otherwise abused them, allegations he denies. A clip from the program was shared on the outlet’s X page.
The Sunday Times said they gave Brand eight days within which to reply to detailed allegations made against him and that his lawyers initially said that they were not in a position to provide any response because the outlets had posed a “large litany of questions” and had allegedly intentionally chosen to anonymize the names of the women. According to the outlets, the lawyers also characterized the matter as deliberate and part of a pre-conceived strategy aimed at damaging their client. In his video message, Brand also said, “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.” The Sunday Times reported that the actor’s lawyer was asked about the aforementioned “evidence” but that no answer was provided.