Russel Brand targeted over claims made on Bill Maher show?
British comedian and actor Russell Brand has denied any criminal wrongdoing as the Sunday Times newspaper reported four women had accused him of sexual assaults, including rape, during a seven-year period when he was at the height of his fame.
Brand, 48, the former husband of U.S. singer Katy Perry, issued a denial to unspecified “very serious criminal allegations” hours before they were published online by the newspaper on Saturday.
The Sunday Times did not say if any of the women had made complaints to the police. Reuters was unable to reach Brand’s representatives for further response after the paper’s report was published.
The Times, which reported the alleged incidents had taken place between 2006 and 2013, said one woman had made an allegation of rape, while another said Brand assaulted her when she was 16 and still at school. Two of the accusers reported the incidents occurred in Los Angeles, the paper said.
Channel 4 TV’s documentary show “Dispatches”, which was due to air further details of the allegations later on Saturday, also broadcast a number of clips of the women on X, formerly known as Twitter, describing the alleged incidents.
In a video message posted on social media, Brand said the accusations contained “a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff”.
“But 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 said.
“Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”
Elon Musk and Andrew Tate were prominent among those who voiced support for Russel Brand.
Thousands of people believe Brand was targeted for claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic created at least 40 new pharma billionaires and pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer made thousands of dollars of profit every second from the COVID vaccines.”
His supporters are convinced that this video clip from Bill Maher show might be why Russell Brand is “being attacked.”