Comedian Russell Brand has denied “serious criminal allegations” in a video released shortly before three British news organizations published an investigation in which four women accused him of sexual assault.
The investigation was a collaborative effort The Sunday Times and The Times of London newspaper and Channel 4 Dispatches, a television program that aired a documentary on the charges on Saturday. They said the women accused him of sexual assault in a series of incidents between 2006 and 2013.
Mr. Brand, an actor and former television host who has recently built a significant following on his YouTube channel, where he frequently speaks on wellness and interviews prominent conservative figures, released short video on social media on Friday, in which he said he had received notes from media organizations citing a “litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks.”
“Amidst this litany of stunning, rather baroque attacks, there are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Mr. Brand said in the video, going on to say that while he had previously spoken of a “promiscuous period” in his life, the encounters during that time were “always consensual “.
His literary agency, Tavistock Wood, announced this weekend that it had cut ties with him, saying in a statement that it believed it had been “terribly misled” when he denied the allegations in 2020.
The allegations were made public while the comedian, 48, was on a short stand-up tour. At a show in North West London on Saturday night, he opened the evening with an oblique reference to the allegations.
“I have a lot of things I could talk to you about,” he said. according to media reports. “Of course there are some things I absolutely cannot talk about and I appreciate you understanding that.
During the investigation, a woman accused Mr. Brand of raping her against a wall in her Los Angeles home in 2012. News organizations said the woman provided medical records confirming she had been treated at a rape crisis center. Another woman accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex when she was 16, even though she pushed him away.
In his video, Mr. Brand did not address the details of the allegations against the four women, three of whom were not identified in the news. He said there were “witnesses whose evidence directly contradicted the narratives” presented to him by news organizations, but Mr Brand’s lawyer did not respond to a question about providing such evidence, according to the article. A lawyer for The New York Times contacted Sunday did not respond to a request for comment on specific allegations in the investigation.
Known for his quick-witted, boundary-pushing humor that occasionally got him into trouble, Mr. Brand rose to fame in Britain in the 2000s with a one-man show about his heroin addiction and then as a presenter on BBC radio and Channel 4 reality TV. He broke into American pop culture with prominent roles in the 2008 rom-com “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and the 2011 remake of “Arthur” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.
The investigation, which was announced on Saturday, also included complaints about Brand’s behavior in the workplace, including complaints from unnamed production staff at Channel 4. They said Brand would reportedly ask members of staff to approach female audiences so he could meet them after filming.
Channel 4 and the BBC said in statements that they were investigating allegations against Brando from his time at their companies.
London’s Metropolitan Police issued a statement in response to the article, saying the department had been in contact with the journalists behind the story and urged all victims of sexual assault to report it to them.
Brand did not address workplace grievances in his video.
Mr. Brand’s commentary on his YouTube channel, which has 6.6 million followers, usually revolves around health, spirituality, so-called revival culture and free speech, and his guests have included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Tucker Carlson and conservative commentator Candace Owens. In his video on Friday, he accused the “mainstream media” of launching what he called a “coordinated attack” against him. Elon Musk responded to Mr. Brand’s post on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, writing: “Of course. They don’t like competition.”
Mr Brand has spoken and written about his struggles with drug, alcohol and sex addictions and wrote in his memoirs that he was treated for sex addiction in 2005.
Alex Marshall contributed reports from London.
