Katy Perry’s Ex-Husband Russell Brand Accused of Rape, Sexual Assault & Emotional Abuse

Content warning: This article covers allegations of rape and sexual assault. RAINN offers help for those impacted by sexual violence. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit the online chat for 24-hour, free, confidential support.

Russell Brand, star of Get Him to the Greek and the Despicable Me film series, is facing allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse. The comedy actor was married to American Idol judge Katy Perry for 14 months before they split in 2011.

As reported by a joint investigation in the U.K. by The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary team (via Variety), four women have accused Brand of sexual assaults that allegedly occurred between 2006 and 2013.

One accuser alleged that Brand assaulted her when she was 16 and he was in his 30s. She said she and Brand had a three-month “emotionally and sexually abusive” relationship, in which the comedian “forced his penis down her throat” during one alleged incident and removed a condom during intercourse without her knowledge during another.

That woman also claimed that Brand called her “the child” and asked her to read from the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita.

A second accuser alleged that Brand raped her in his Los Angeles home in 2012, and a third alleged that he sexually assaulted her at his West Hollywood home the following year.

According to the Times report, a 24-year-old woman said Brand “flashed his penis” at her in his dressing room and “insinuated that she could give him oral sex,” while the Brand X alum’s former assistant said she saw him showing “intimate pictures of women” to others.

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand denies accusations of rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behaviour.

Five women share their stories with @C4Dispatches in a joint investigation with @thetimes.

Watch Russell Brand: In Plain Sight tonight at 9pm on @Channel4 pic.twitter.com/gmVMCAsh2B

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) September 16, 2023

The Times reported on the accusations against Brand today, Saturday, September 16, with Channel 4 scheduled to air a 90-minute documentary titled Russell Brand: In Plain Sight tonight. “Five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the program,” a rep for the show said in a statement, per Variety.

In a YouTube video published before the report, Brand discussed what he called a “litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks” that included “some very serious allegations” that he refutes.

The 48-year-old said the relationships he had when he was “working in the mainstream” were “absolutely always consensual,” and he questioned whether “there is another agenda at play.”