\u201cBut I don\u2019t know, I think at heart my faith says we\u2019re connected together and we need each other, and not to judge people and to love people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair have been friends since Brand appeared on the second season of Grylls\u2019 show, Running Wild, in 2023, an episode that saw them explore the Scottish isles together.<\/p>\n
In April the following year, Brand shared a photo of his baptism ceremony to Instagram, with Grylls pictured embracing him.<\/p>\n
The survivalist has repeatedly defended his participation in the spiritual milestone since then.<\/p>\n
In his first public comments, Grylls told the Daily Telegraph the baptism was \u201ca real moment of humility and repentance\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what, whoever it is, you can\u2019t only stand beside people who have had perfect journeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople say to me, \u2018What about the victims?\u2019, if they\u2019re victims. And I go, \u2018Of course I stand beside everybody. We are called to love everybody and not to judge anyone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Brand is accused of sexually assaulting four women between 1999 and 2005 and is set to stand trial in London later this year.<\/p>\n
The pair became friends in 2023, with Grylls baptising Brand the following year. Photo \/ Russell Brand<\/p>\n
The British celebrity has denied the allegations but admitted he had \u201cconsensual\u201d sex with a 16-year-old on Megyn Kelly\u2019s podcast earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30. When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n
The age of consent in the United Kingdom, where the sexual activity is alleged to have occurred, is 16.<\/p>\n
Brand said that while his relationships with women during his career have been consensual, he now believes the power imbalance meant they involved \u201cexploitation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsensual 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brand went on to describe himself as a \u201chedonist\u201d and \u201cexploiter of women\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish and I did not apply enough consideration, barely any I suppose, really, to how that sex was affecting other people\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut I don\u2019t know, I think at heart my faith says we\u2019re connected together and we need each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,1554,1863,274811,274809,20206,4463,3595,1873,40367,21137,1862,9060,99524,6125,156,6119,76336,130,111,139,69,62511,30083,1523,11763,7680,23742,274810,131],"class_list":["post-558722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-alleged","tag-back","tag-baptising","tag-baptism","tag-bear","tag-brand","tag-by","tag-charges","tag-comedian","tag-criminal","tag-dating","tag-decades","tag-defended","tag-disgraced","tag-entertainment","tag-faces","tag-grylls","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offence","tag-offences","tag-over","tag-russell","tag-sex","tag-stands","tag-survivalist","tag-than"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}