A timeline of the allegations against Russell Brand.

This post contains references to sexual assault.

Four women have accused Russell Brand of rape and sexual assault when he was at the height of his fame.

In response to the allegations, the 48-year-old released a video statement. "Amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute," he 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."

Brand continued, "Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual."

Here's everything we know about what happened, including old interviews that have resurfaced since the allegations were made public.

What did Russell Brand do?

2006

A woman has alleged that Brand sexually assaulted her in 2006 when she was 16 years old and still at school. Brand was a 30-year-old at the time of their three-month relationship, working as a BBC radio presenter and hosting Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

She told the Sunday Times that Brand starting 'grooming' her after an encounter at Leicester Square in London. He allegedly approached the teen girl, who was out shopping, then went through her shopping bags and said, "You’re going to wear this on our date this week.”

After telling her mother about what happened, the girl was encouraged to text Brand her age. She says he was undeterred, and at their first meeting, asked her to confirm she was indeed 16.

What she claims followed were weeks of what the woman described as sexually and emotionally abusive behaviour. She said he referred to her as “the child”, sent a car to pick her up from her secondary school, asked her to save his name as “Carly” in her phone, and gave her “scripts” on how to deceive her parents.

2007

In a book published in 2014, Jordan Martin alleged that Brand sexually assaulted her, and was physically and emotionally abusive during their six-month relationship in 2007.

In one alleged incident, she said he assaulted her at the Lowry hotel in Manchester after finding out she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend. She said he ripped her phone case apart before touching her sexually when she was “not ready for this intrusion”.

On another occasion, she said he forced her to brush her teeth until her gums bled. 

2012

In the same Sunday Times report, another woman alleged that Brand raped her against a wall in 2012 at his Los Angeles home. She alleged that, despite telling Brand to get off her and that she wanted to leave, he continued and blocked the door to prevent her from going afterwards.

The day of the alleged incident, she said was treated at a Rape Treatment Centre, where she continued therapy treatment for the next five months. She contemplated criminal or civil proceedings but decided against it, according to records shared with the Times.

Following the incident, she and Brand allegedly exchanged a series of text messages. "When a girl say[s] NO it means no," she texted, claiming he replied: "I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person."

2013

In an additional account, another woman started working with Brand after the pair met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. She claims he sexually assaulted her at his Los Angeles home, alleging he pinned her down, and tried to kiss her and remove her clothes as she shouted at him to stop. 

“I was screaming: ‘What are you doing, stop, please, you’re my friend,’” she said.

He eventually stopped, but then he “flipped”, shouted at her, and told her she was fired. Brand allegedly later threatened the woman with legal action if she spoke about her allegations.

A few years later, she says she spoke to someone who was outside Brand's house at the time of the incident. “I heard you screaming,” he said. “We were all so scared of him.”

2023

The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 TV show Dispatches released their joint investigation, which chronicled allegations made against Brand over a seven-year period.

What has Katy Perry said about Russell Brand?

The pop singer was married to Brand for 14 months in 2010. In an old interview, Katy said something curious about Brand that suggested she knew something she wasn't ready to share.

“I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day,” Perry told Vogue in 2013.

“I let go and I was like, ‘This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me.’ So I have moved on from that.”

Perry was famously dumped by Brand via text in 2011.

What has Dannii Minogue said about Russell Brand?

An interview from almost 20 years ago is now being viewed through an even more sinister lens, with Dannii Minogue having previously said some rather alarming things about an experience she had with Brand.

She told The Mirror back in 2006 that the comedian was "completely crazy and a bit of a vile predator. I certainly don’t think he has cured his sex addiction, that’s for sure.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He always goes that step too far. Never quite far enough to slap his face, but usually too far. Throughout the whole interview, he kept making shocking remarks that I can’t even repeat." 

What did Katherine Ryan say about Russell Brand?

Another comment from a female celebrity is doing the rounds online. In 2021, comedian Katherine Ryan told Louis Theroux there was an "open secret" about a male comic being a predator, though she did not name the star in question.

In another 2022 interview with comedian Sara Pascoe on Amazon Prime's Backstage With Katherine Ryan, she again said, "I've done a show with a person [that] you and I believe is a predator. It's such a messy thing because I don't have proof. I raised it. I called him a predator to his face and in front of everyone every day."

Ryan previously appeared alongside Brand on an episode of Comedy Central's Roast Battle in 2018.

Another comedian, Daniel Sloss, has also poured fuel on fire, as he claimed in Channel 4's Dispatches documentary that women would warn each other about Russell, and there were "many stories with varying degrees of severity" about him.

Why did Bob Geldof swear at Russell Brand?

Brand was reportedly romantically linked to Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches in the early noughties, before she died of a drug overdose in 2014 at the age of 25. 

And Bob is no fan of Brand's. At the NME awards in 2006, as Geldof collected an award that Brand was giving, he took the microphone and said, “Russell Brand, what a c**t”. 

Russell replied, "Bob Geldof there, obviously an amazing man to whom we have a lot to be grateful – not him calling me a c**t of course."

He then seemingly took a swipe at the muso, saying, it was "no surprise [Geldof]’s such an expert on famine. He has, after all, been dining out on ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ for 30 years.”

When Russell and Peaches were rumoured to have dated, Brand was 31 years old. Geldof's daughter would've been 17.

Who is Russell Brand's wife and what has she said?

Russell's wife Laura Gallacher is an author/illustrator and the sister of broadcaster and radio presenter, Kirsty Gallacher. 

The couple met when Laura was a 19-year-old art student. Brand was 30 years old at the time and initially dated Laura prior to his marriage to Katy Perry. The pair reconnected after his divorce, and married in 2017. The couple now share two children together – daughters Mabel and Peggy – and are expecting their third.

According to The Mirror, Laura deleted her social media account just hours after her husband released a video denying the then-unspecified allegations. 

Her sister Kirsty Gallacher initially reposted Russell Brand’s denial on her Instagram Stories, adding a beating heart emoji. However, the post was soon deleted. 

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.

Feature image: Getty.