A woman alleging that Russell Brand raped her by pushing her against a wall has hit out at his wellness persona, saying she knows “the demon underneath”.
The actor and comedian, who denies the allegations, has built a sprawling empire on social media in recent years, including on YouTube, where he has 6.6m followers, with videos that mix wellness, spiritualism and anti-addiction content with conspiracy theories, rightwing talking points and anti-media messaging.
The woman, using the pseudonym Nadia, spoke out in an interview with the Times, and provided the paper with notes and records from a rape treatment centre and months of therapy as part of a years-long investigation into Brand with Channel 4 News.
Brand is worth about £16m, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He has spent the last decade telling the world not to trust the mainstream media industry.
Referencing Brand’s reinvention as a wellness guru, Nadia said: “He’s saying one thing and I know the demon underneath it … He wants to help with meditation, he’s all in this wellness world … It just makes me so mad that he has a platform for that.
“What do I want out of this? Just for him to stop … I’m just sick of seeing men get away with this,” she added.
Nadia claims she met the comedian in 2012 in Los Angeles. Brand, then 37, kissed her at an afterparty and began texting her. They had consensual sex in June 2012 at Brand’s house in Hollywood, she told the Times, adding that later Brand messaged her to “bring a friend”, adding: “I feel like I require a little chaos.”
Nadia told the newspaper the next time she saw Brand in July, he raped her. “I was out late and he happened to call me and say, ‘I’ve had a really bad day, please come over,’” she said. “And at first I said, ‘No, I’m not going, it’s late.’ And he’s like, ‘Please come, just come and cuddle with me.’ So then I gave in. And I’m, like, ‘OK.’”
Nadia alleges that when she arrived, Brand emerged from the bedroom naked and began kissing her, “which was kind of fun. And then it wasn’t that fun when I couldn’t move or I knew what he wanted from me at that point,” she said.
“He pushed me up against a wall. I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he’s like, ‘I have a friend here and I, I want you to come in the bedroom.’ I’m like, ‘No, that’s not happening, we’re not doing that.’”
Nadia said she “tried to get away from him” and moved to another wall but he followed her. “And at this point he’s grabbing at my underwear, pulling it to the side. I’m telling him to get off of me and he won’t get off.”
Nadia claims Brand raped her without a condom. She “couldn’t move” and only thought about “how am I going to get out of here, alive, basically”.
At 3.29am Brand sent Nadia a text message: “I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person. X.” He tried phoning her at 3.51am, but the call went unanswered. The Times said it had verified the number sending the messages with multiple sources.
Later that day, Nadia describes being taken by a friend to the rape treatment centre at UCLA’s Santa Monica medical centre. A decade on, she decided to speak out after learning of the Times’ investigation into Brand’s alleged abuse against multiple women.
Brand has denied the allegations and said all his relationships had been consensual.
