Russell Brand says it’s been a “extraordinary and distressing” week following allegations of rape and sexual abuse against him.
He thanked fans for their support and for “questioning the information that you’ve been presented with” in a video posted on social media.
They are his first public comments since the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches reported charges about him last weekend.
Russell Brand has refuted the allegations.
Four women accused Brand of sexual assaults and rape between 2006 and 2013, according to a collaborative investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Brand disputed the charges prior to their publication, claiming that his encounters were “always consensual.”
The actor and comedian did not explicitly address the allegations in his three-minute video on Friday, but he did make statements about “media corruption and censorship” and “deep state and corporate collusion.”
He claimed he would post a longer film on the video streaming site Rumble on Monday, citing the platform’s “clear commitment to free speech.”
Rumble said earlier this week that it would not “join a cancel culture mob” in response to a question from a UK Parliament inquiry on whether it would slash Brand’s salary in the wake of the claims.
Four women filed claims against Russell Brand in the Sunday Times, Times, and Channel 4 investigation:
One woman claims Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home without using a condom. She claims Brand tried to stop her leaving until she told him she needed to use the loo. She was treated at a rape crisis centre on the same day, according to medical records obtained by the BBC.
A second woman in the United Kingdom claims Russell Brand assaulted her when he was in his early 30s and she was still in school. She claims he referred to her as “the child” during a controlling and emotionally abusive relationship. In retrospect, she claims he “engaged in grooming behaviours.”
A third woman claims that while working with Brand in Los Angeles, he sexually attacked her. She claims she constantly ordered Brand to get off her, and when he finally did, he “flipped” and became “super angry.” He allegedly threatened her with legal action if she notified anybody else about her claim.
The fourth woman claims Brand sexually assaulted her in the UK and was physically and emotionally hostile to her.
Another woman accused Brand this week of exposing himself to her and then laughing about it on his BBC radio show in 2008.
YouTube has barred Brand’s channels from receiving money from advertisements for “violating” the platform’s “creator responsibility policy.” It stated that it was acting “to protect” its users.
In recent years, he has repositioned himself, regularly sending videos to his online fans on spirituality, anti-establishment politics, and, most lately, UFOs.
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