Russell Brand Denies Rape Charges: ‘I Was a Drug and Sex Addict’ but ‘I Never Was a Rapist’

Russell Brand has been charged with rape, indecent assault and sexual assault by London’s Metropolitan Police.

The charges relate to four separate women and incidents that took place between 1999 and 2005.

According to the police, detectives had begun investigating in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations following a major expose undertaken by both Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times.

The 50-year-old has previously denied the allegations.

“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” said detective superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation. “The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”

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Brand, who has been mostly based in the U.S. for the last few years, is now due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 2.

In a social media posted Brand uploaded several hours after the news broke, he address the allegations.

“When I was young and single, before I had my wife and family, I was a fool, was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord, I was a drug addict, sex addict and an imbecile,” he said. “But what I never was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes. “

The 2023 expose — which included a 90-minute documentary and article in the Sunday Times — saw Brand accused of “rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse.” A rep for the show said that “Five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the program.”

In the wake of the report, Brand’s live tour was postponed and his publishing deal with Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird was suspended. The BBC also removed previous programs that featured Brand from digital services, saying that the content “falls below public expectations.” Further allegations would surface, with Thames Valley Police, alongside the Met, launching separate investigations.

Following an internal investigation, earlier this year the BBC, where Brand worked for a number of years, apologized to staff members who felt they were unable to raise complaints or concerns about his behavior.

According to the BBC, its investigation considered eight complaints, two of which were made while Brand worked for the BBC. One such complaint related to Brand urinating into a cup during a show on BBC Radio 2. The BBC acknowledged that it had been registered formally at the time, but admitted it was “not dealt with effectively.” Another part of the report concerned an allegation that Brand had exposed himself to a woman in the bathroom of the BBC’s L.A. office.

Brand, who was a major star on U.K. TV in the mid-2000s and would go on to find Hollywood fame with movies such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Pineapple Express,” had fallen out of the mainstream limelight in the years preceding the allegations. But he had begun amassing large numbers of online followers on the political right-wing (despite being original considered one of the most prominent left-wing voices in the U.K.) on his YouTube and Rumble channels and has spoken out numerous times in support of Donald Trump. Over the last year, he’s also discussed his new-found Christian faith and has prayed at live events alongside Tucker Carlson.