Following the explosive allegations against comedian and actor Russell Brand, fresh details have been coming to light about his past relationships.
In particular, there has been a renewed focus on his brief marriage to pop star Katy Perry, and now Piers Morgan has revealed the chilling ‘nickname’ she had for her ex-husband.
Last weekend, news of a joint investigation by Channel 4, The Times and Sunday Times broke, which looked into a host of allegations against comedian and actor Russell Brand.
Channel 4’s Dispatches broadcast an extended documentary covering the allegations, with the newspapers also publishing their reports over the weekend.
Brand was accused by 4 different women of assaulting them between the years of 2006 and 2013, during the height of his fame. The allegations include r*pe, emotional abuse and sexual assault. All 4 of the women have chosen to remain anonymous.
One of the women accused Brand of r*ping her at his Los Angeles home, and sought treatment at a r*pe crisis centre the next day.
A second said that she entered into a relationship with him when she was sixteen years old and he was thirty-one. She claimed that during their time together Brand was emotionally abusive and controlling.
A third woman said that he assaulted her at his Los Angeles house, and threatened legal action if she told anyone.
The fourth accuser said that Brand sexually assaulted her, and also claimed that he was physically and emotionally abusive.
The investigation took place over several years, with journalists having accessed text messages, medical files and Brand’s biography.
Brand has denied all the accusations against him. In a statement shared to his social media, he said the accusations “pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream.”
“As I have written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” he said.
“Now during that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.
“To see that transparency metastasised into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question – is there another agenda at play?”
In the wake of the allegations, a magnifying glass has been turned to Brand’s past relationships, and in particular his ex-wife Katy Perry.
Some of the most haunting resurfaced comments about Brand comes from Perry, who divorced him in 2012.
In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Perry said: “I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth. I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day.”
Per UNILAD, she also described Brand as being ‘very controlling’, and explained: “At first, when I met him, he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness,’.”
Piers Morgan has also spoken out about his experience of Perry and Brand, and in an article for The Sun revealed the chilling ‘nickname’ he says Perry had for her ex.
The journalist explained that he met the ‘Firework’ singer at a Vanity Fair event in Washington DC following her divorce from Brand. Morgan says he tried to “book her for an interview,” but that she declined on the basis that he was going to try to “get the truth” out of her.
He claims she continued to say that British people are “so damn confident.”
“Trouble is, I find that irresistible. I love Brits … Well, not all of them – not Rasputin, obviously,” she reportedly added.
Morgan went on to ponder on Perry’s alleged comparison of Brand to Rasputin.
Rasputin was a Russian mystic who developed a close relationship with the Romanov family, and in particular Tsar Nicholas II, in the final years of the Russian Empire.
In his article, Morgan writes that the historical figure was “fiercely intelligent” and “s*x-crazed,” while also being “manipulative” and “controlling”.
Morgan went on to claim that Brand was “thrilled” when he discovered the nickname further down the line.
