Rape accusations against Russell Brand: his former employers are investigating internally

The BBC, Channel 4 and production company Banijay UK said on Sunday they would internally investigate accusations of rape and sexual assault made by several women against former British presenter and actor Russell Brand.

In a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and The Times newspapers, as well as Channel 4, four women accuse the actor of sexual assault between 2006 and 2013, when Russell Brand was at the height of his career, both as a presenter on BBC Radio 2, Channel 4 and as a Hollywood film actor. “Russell Brand worked for BBC radio programs between 2006 and 2008 and we will urgently examine the problems raised” by this investigation, a spokesperson for the public audiovisual giant BBC told AFP.

Channel 4 and the production company Banijay UK, owner of Endemol which employed Russell Brand, have also indicated that they are carrying out their own internal investigations, according to British media. Prior to the publication of these revelations, the 48-year-old ex-host, now mainly active on social networks, had refuted on “totally consensual” relationships.

In investigation, one woman accuses Russell Brand of raping her in his Los Angeles home, while another claims she was sexually assaulted during a three-month relationship when she was still a high school senior 16 years old. During his career as a comedian, on television and in the cinema, in the United Kingdom then in the United States, Russell Brand was noted for his repeated escapades, his former addiction to alcohol and heroin, his brief marriage to pop singer Katy Perry and his tendency to brag about his many female conquests.

He has recently made numerous conspiratorial, anti-vaccine and anti-mainstream comments on his YouTube channel, followed by more than 6 million subscribers, or on his X account (formerly Twitter) with more than 11 million subscribers. . Asked by AFP, the Metropolitan Police indicated, without mentioning the actor by name, that at this stage they “have not received any reports” in connection with the accusations made in the media against him. The affair caused a reaction even in the political world. The chair of the parliamentary committee on culture, media and sport Caroline Dinenage said parliament will “closely monitor” the response to the allegations against Russell Brand.