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When Russell Brand emerged from the back of a blacked-out minivan for the first day of his rape trial at Southwark Crown Court, the one-time comedian was flanked by two people. One was a burly security guard. The other was Laura, his wife of almost a decade, who clutched his hand as they made their way into the building.
The couple, both wearing sunglasses to block out the flashbulbs, didn’t respond to questions from the journalists gathered outside. Now the comedian is facing three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of indecent assault, made by six women and spanning a decade from 1999 to 2009; he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Although Laura has spent most of the last three years out of the public eye (and indeed out of the UK, following the couple’s relocation to the Maga heartlands of Florida), the past few months have marked something of a sea change for the 38-year-old writer and illustrator.
Laura Brand accompanied her husband on the first day of his trial (AFP/Getty)
For one, the youngest daughter of Scottish golfing ace Bernard Gallacher now appears to be something of a born-again Christian, just like her husband (who was baptised in the River Thames, with the assistance of TV survivalist Bear Grylls, in 2024). For the past few months, she has been co-hosting a weekly podcast, Sunday Service, with Russell, recorded from their home.
Episodes see the two of them talk about their Christian faith, recap Bible stories and share prayers; clips shared on YouTube are presented in a double-screen format, with strange AI-generated videos of Old Testament tales appearing alongside footage of the couple’s discussions.
The Brands’ pivot to a kind of all-American, Maga-friendly evangelising feels miles away from Laura’s home counties upbringing. Growing up on the Wentworth Estate, a gated golfing estate in Virginia Water, Surrey, she lived alongside Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, after Sarah Ferguson moved there following her separation from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The significant age gap between Laura and her older sister, the broadcaster and model Kirsty, 50, and their brother Jamie, meant that she “spent a lot of time alone”, she recalled to The Telegraph in 2022. “My parents allowed me a lot of time outside to be creative, like making mud pies and petal perfumes. To me, that was a world of magic”.
When she was 18, she headed off to art school. It was around this time that she first met Russell, who was then 31, and shared an agent with Laura’s older sister. Their relationship, however, didn’t last long, with the comedian and presenter about to reach the apex of his fame, going from hosting Channel 4 shows to booking roles in Hollywood movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Reflecting on their romance years later, Laura admitted: “I really fell in love. I’d never experienced love like that before – which made for a good story at the wedding.”
Russell would go on to marry Katy Perry in 2010, before they announced their split just 14 months later (the singer later claimed that he ended their marriage via text message). Laura, meanwhile, went on to work in the hospitality industry. But in 2015, a chance encounter threw them back into one another’s orbit.
She also joined him for a pretrial hearing last week (Reuters)
Laura was “heartbroken” in the depths of a break-up, and her “ex had literally moved out of our flat that day”, she told Grazia in 2020. A friend dragged her outside to walk along the canal in east London, then, “as we came onto the footpath, Russell was standing there, like he’d organised it”.
This time, she reflected, Russell was “so different” to the person she’d known in the Noughties, and they “both immediately knew it was going to be serious”. After they “really courted the old-fashioned way” for two years, they tied the knot near the home in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, in a ceremony attended by the likes of Jonathan Ross, Noel Gallagher and David Baddiel.
Sometimes it can look like I’m dealing with an adult toddler, but Russell’s really into doing the stuff I’m into
Laura Brand
About nine months earlier, they’d welcomed their first child, a daughter named Mabel; another daughter, Peggy, was born in 2018, and a son, Herb, followed in 2023. In interviews, the comedian painted a bucolic picture of family life in their riverside thatched cottage, where the couple and their children were joined by a menagerie of chickens, pigs and cats.
But you didn’t have to read between the lines to glean that Laura appeared to take on the majority of the childcare. In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2019, Russell said that he was “not so good” when it came to changing nappies, and even revealed that he had never spent 24 hours alone in charge of his kids. “Laura does all of it,” he said. “I am dedicated to it, devoted to it, but I am still surprised when it’s like ‘Oh my God, this is really f***king hard and it’s so exhausting.”
His remarks inevitably sparked backlash, with his sister-in-law Kirsty wading in to write them off as “flippant comment[s]” and to defend him as “very hands-on”. In her 2020 interview with Grazia, promoting her book The Joy Journal, Laura echoed a similar sentiment. “We really do have fun together,” she said. “Sometimes it can look like I’m dealing with an adult toddler, but Russell’s really into doing the stuff I’m into.”
Laura appearing on Brand’s YouTube channel back in June (YouTube/ Russell Brand)
In 2023, those interests aligned when they launched an alcohol-free wellness festival called Community, with a lineup that included meditation, breathwork, ice baths and wild swimming, as well as talks from Russell himself.
Later that year, Laura, who’d previously posted illustrations and insights into family life on her social media, deleted her Instagram account; the interviews stopped, too, and she has not published a book since. In 2024, the family relocated to Santa Rosa Beach in Florida, perhaps to escape the media glare back home.
Their rumoured $1m bungalow is in an area nicknamed “the Hamptons of the South”, and since the move Stateside, Russell, who once appeared on the front cover of The New Statesman and backed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 election, has doubled down on peddling right-wing views and conspiracy theories. In 2024, he drew mockery for advertising a “magical amulet” that professed to protect its wearer from WiFi and “evil energy”.
Reading from the Bible on an episode of ‘Sunday Service’ (YouTube/ Russell Brand)
Then came the very public Christian rebirth, which has only helped to cement his status and boost his profile among the MAGA faithful and Republican elite, for whom religious identity can translate to political power. Now Laura appears to have set aside her dislike of publicity to join her husband on the microphone – because every religious guru needs their forbearing, loving helpmeet by their side.
The Brands have announced their intention to keep podcasting through these “times of challenge”, and during a recent episode, Laura admitted her unease at returning to the spotlight. “I got nervous before going to court,” she said. “I’m not used to getting out of the car and seeing lots of photographers.” With her husband’s trial set to last up to two months, she may soon have to adapt.