Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
In an interview with Megyn Kelly released on Wednesday, comedian turned spiritual podcaster Russell Brand said that he had “exploitative” but “consensual” sex with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30.
After Kelly suggested that Brand, who’s now 50 and facing a rape trial in the U.K. later this year, was being “railroaded” because of his “right-leaning stance on certain issues,” Brand volunteered even more info. “The plain fact of it is that in Europe and in the United Kingdom where I’m from, the age of consent is 16,” he said. “And I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30, but when I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
“Consensual sex with a lot of people, when there is a strong power differential, as there is when you are a famous man who has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation,” Brand continued. “I think it is exploitative.” He described his behavior at the time as “selfish,” saying that he “did not apply enough consideration … to how that sex was affecting other people.”
In 2023, multiple women accused Brand of rape, sexual assault, and abuse in a joint investigation published by U.K. news outlets The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4. (He has denied all of the allegations.) One of the women who spoke to reporters said she was 16 when she had a three-month relationship with a then-31-year-old Brand, who she said referred to her as “the child” and asked her to read Lolita. She also alleged that he once removed a condom during sex without her knowledge.
The report prompted authorities in the U.K. to investigate Brand, and last April, he was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and rape between 1999 and 2005. He denied all wrongdoing again following the charges, saying in a video on X, “I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. I never engaged in nonconsensual activity.” His trial is set to begin on October 12.
Speaking to Kelly, Brand — whose recent rightward turn has included promoting COVID conspiracy theories and speaking at Turning Point USA events — suggested that the investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct was published because he had become “openly critical of the pharmaceutical industry, the British government, bureaucratic agencies that have unelected power.” Brand acknowledged that he did “through my conduct hurt people,” but claimed that there was no “criminal conduct,” opting instead to describe his behavior as “awful but lawful.”
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