Laura Brand Takes the Stand at Russell Brand’s Trial: ‘I Love Him Very Much’
by Sari Moon · Thought CatalogBy Sari Moon
Updated 3 hours ago, October 29, 2026
Laura Brand testified in her husband Russell Brand’s defense at his sex-crimes trial on October 29, telling the jury, “I love him very much.” Russell laughed during her evidence at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
Her testimony came a day after he told the jury that longtime friends and colleagues had distanced themselves from him.
On October 28, his barrister, Ian Winter KC, asked how the 2023 Sunday Times, Times and Channel 4 Dispatches reporting had affected relationships stretching back 24 or 25 years. “It was devastating,” Russell said. Asked whether he’d persuaded “a single person with relevant evidence” to testify, he answered: “I have not.”
“Would they touch you with a barge pole?” Winter asked. “No,” Russell replied.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC challenged his account, saying it was “not the case you have been completely abandoned by everyone.” She pointed to a London show attended by about 2,000 people as the documentary aired and asked: “You have a platform with followers in the millions, don’t you?”
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In her testimony, Laura described her husband as “caring,” “kind,” “a wonderful father” and “an amazingly attentive husband.” She told the jury: “We do have many friends and there are colleagues, and we are grateful for those people.”
She said they’d met in August 2006, when she was 19 and he was 31. They separated in February 2007 because “it was difficult for him to be monogamous,” leaving her “a little heartbroken.” They married in 2017.
Russell, 51, denies 3 counts of rape, 3 counts of sexual assault and 1 count of attempted indecent assault involving 6 women, with alleged incidents spanning 1999 to 2009. The case’s toll, he said, was “my marriage, my children and my health.” Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on November 3.
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