Russell Brand: If someone always brings up their sex addiction, you should listen

Simone Meier

Russell Brand’s TV and radio career is like that of a Catholic priest: he misbehaves and gets transferred. Not fired, just transferred. There’s always a new city or a new show. Russell Brand is not just transferred, he “behaves badly, he is rewarded with a promotion, with a new show”, as BBC board member Lorraine Heggessay notes in frustration.

Russell Brand, the addict. Who never made it a secret. He presented MTV on heroin and was addicted to sex while working for Channel 4 and doing radio speaking for the BBC. At that time he needed three women a day. Later, when he was on tour in America, “more than five,” according to a former lover and colleague.

One day while shopping, he met a 16-year-old – in the documentary “Russell Brand: In Plain Sight” she is called “Alice” – and at first gently, but determinedly and increasingly brutally, he made her his sex slave. “In Plain Sight” is based on long-term research by Channel 4’s “Dispatches” investigative department and the “Sunday Times”.

Russell Brand was a Predator, a predator in plain sight. And ears. When he was a host or on stage as a comedian, sex was his main topic. He joked about performing oral sex until the woman gagged. He fantasized about the queen’s breasts. He pulled down his pants for the camera and sat on the lap of the person he was talking to. He received his assistants in his hotel room in their underwear and proposed sex to them. He also had sex with some of them, even though his employment contract contained a special clause stating that sex with female employees was taboo.

During a radio broadcast, he promises Jimmy Saville that he will send his (appointed) assistant naked and ready for anything. Saville was later found to be a multiple sex offender. In a telephone prank, he gleefully tells longtime actor Andrew Sachs about alleged sex with his granddaughter.

Every now and then he has to go to rehab at the insistence of his manager. For immediate admission. Because of his sex addiction. Then he briefly reformed, wrote a bestseller about it and everyone was amazed at how transparent, honest and authentic Russell Brand was. And especially for young British celebrities who became famous in the 1990s, the equation applied at the time: the more addicted, the more authentic, more eccentric, more charismatic. Kate Moss, Pete Doherty, Amy Winehouse, Russell Brand. People as spectacle.

He had a brief relationship with Kate Moss, was friends with Amy Winehouse and married the daughter of the American preacher, Katy Perry, in 2010, filing for divorce after just fourteen months. A short time later, he raped a young woman, named “Nadja” in the film, at his LA home after she refused to have sex with him and a friend. At least that’s what the Rape Crisis Center says, where Nadja went next.

Because he is not stupid, he realizes his transgressions. Realizes that a woman says no. Just do it anyway. Apologizes in contrite text messages the next day. If the women do not immediately respond to the apology, the messages will gradually turn into terrorism. Then he threatens to call his lawyers. None of the women in the film sued him, and each of the ultimately abusive relationships began amicably. There will probably be no legal consequences for him.

One former employee describes it this way: He viewed women as interchangeable commodities with whom he could do anything, and that was precisely what led to an atmosphere where serious transgressions were easily possible.

Today, Russell Brand leads a seemingly healthy life as a ‘health guru’, has been married for several years and is the father of two daughters. He has 28 million followers on various social media channels, his fortune is estimated at 20 million francs, and he earns several million a year from his YouTube channel and a podcast alone, as the ‘Guardian’ writes. And while he used to write confession books and instructions for the revolution, today he writes manuals for mental and physical health.

He now shares views on the media that are generally on the right-wing extremist spectrum; his disciples are certain that ‘In Plain Sight’ is an attempt to silence a brilliant social critic; they compare him to Julian Assange and Donald Trump. That’s how he raised her, says journalist and globalization critic Naomi Klein.

His defenders following the allegations made by the women in the film now include Elon Musk (“I support Russell Brand. This man is not bad.”), Andrew Tate (“Like us, Russell Brand took on the Matrix, now it’s fighting back!”) and Tucker Carlson (“Criticize the drug companies, question the war in Ukraine, and you can be pretty sure it will happen”). Russell Brand also sees “another agenda” the work behind the women’s accusations, which he of course denies.

At times, executives worried about the Russell Brand phenomenon and discussed how to better keep him away from women. And decided to take the women out of circulation. They made money with Russell Brand. The women only caused trouble.

P.S Channel 4 is urging other possible victims to come forward, whatever they do. The “Independent” has posted a live ticker on the subject. ‘Alice’ gave an interview in which she described how he had her picked up from school in a BBC company van. Brand’s father, who was absent during his childhood but introduced his son to the world of brothels at the age of 16 during a trip to Thailand, supports him. An old interview with Kylie’s sister Dannii Minogue has surfaced in which she clearly mentions Brand’s sex addiction. To be continued.