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Actor Russell Brand has released a new video to his social media accounts where he is “absolutely” refuting any merit to sexual assault allegations made against him in a new article from The Times U.K. He calls the allegations “very serious” and that they allegedly took place at the height of his Hollywood fame, between 2006-2013. “As I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” Brand said in the video, posted before the article came out on Saturday. “Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well.”
Later in the video, Brand compares himself and these allegations by The Times U.K. to Joe Rogan and what he called “coordinated media attacks” Rogan received for taking ivermectin for COVID-19. He also claimed the allegations were possibly part of “another agenda at play” due to Brand’s career as an online media personality. “What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations. Also it’s worth mentioning that 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,” he concluded. “Now I don’t want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together.”
The article, which was a joint investigation from The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches, claims that four women are alleging sexual assaults against the actor, with one accuser who was 16 at the time of the assault. It also details sexual harassment allegations from his former coworkers and employees, including his past assistants, from his time working at the BBC and on Channel 4. Comedian Daniel Sloss also went on the record to state that female comedians have been warning each other about Brand’s behavior for years. Tavistock Wood Management, Brand’s former representation, released a statement to Vulture and The Times U.K. on the allegations: “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”