Russell Brand has addressed the rape and sexual assault allegations made against him. On Friday, April 4, London’s Metropolitan Police charged the 49-year-old actor and comedian with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault (per a news release).
The charges, which are related to four separate women dating back to 1999, and follows an investigation that started in 2023. According to Deadline, Brand allegedly “raped a woman in Bournemouth in 1999, indecently assaulted a woman in 2001 in Westminster, London, orally raped and sexually assaulted a woman in Westminster in 2004, and between 2004 and 2005 sexually assaulted a woman, also in Westminster.”
Brand was previously accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women in September 2023, and was sued by another woman a few months later. He also denied those allegations at the time.
After news broke of the new charges against him, Russell released a new video on X denying the allegations: “We’re very fortunate in a way to live in a time when there’s so little trust in the British government. We’re very fortunate, I suppose, that this is happening at a time where we know that the law has become a kind of weapon to be used against people, institutions and sometimes entire nations that will not accept and tolerate levels of corruption around precedent, and I’m speaking particularly to those of you in the UK,” he started off the minute and a half-long video. “How do you feel about your legal system right now? How do you feel about some of the high profile cases that are not being pursued or prosecuted?”
“When I was young and single, before I had my wife and family, I was a fool, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord. I was a drug addict, sex addict and an imbecile,” he continued. “But what I never was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.” He then concluded the video by thanking those who have supported him.
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