Russell Brand took to his podcast to talk about the end of his marriage to singer Katy Perry, just one day before news broke that he had been charged with rape and sexual assault.
“What can I tell you is, when I was married to Katy Perry, she’s like, not entirely normal, because she’s an extraordinary, massive star — but she’s not weird or off key,” Brand, 49, said during his “Stay Free with Russell Brand” podcast on Thursday, April 3. “And wasn’t involved in anything nefarious, as far as I could tell.”
“The reasons that a marriage didn’t work are the normal human reasons [why] marriages don’t work, and I have nothing but respect for her,” he added.
Brand and Perry, 40, married in 2010 before he filed for divorce in late 2011, citing irreconcilable differences. Brand then married Laura Gallacher in 2017 while Perry is now engaged to Orlando Bloom.
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“I obviously disagree with [Perry’s] political views,” Brand continued. “But I probably disagree with some of my wife’s political views, my beloved wife, Laura Brand’s political views. So, you know, you always disagree with people, don’t ya?”
Brand’s comments came shortly before British police charged him with rape and sexual assault following an 18-month investigation. The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed to Us Weekly that he was charged following claims from four different women between 1999 and 2005.
“We have today authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offenses,” a spokesperson for the CPS, Jaswant Narwal, said in a statement. “We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offenses including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”
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Narwal continued, “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial,” the statement concluded. “It is extremely important that there be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
Brand has previously denied sexual misconduct allegations, pre-empting a 2023 Channel 4 documentary release with an impassioned statement. (Us Weekly also reached out on Friday for further comment.)
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“I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company [and] one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks,” he said in a September 2023 video posted via X. “As well as some pretty stupid stuff, like my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”
“As I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual,” he continued. “I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent. And I’m being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question [if] there is another agenda at play?”
He is scheduled to appear for a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 2.