Russell Brand has told police that a once “very promiscuous” celebrity lifestyle — including kissing fans in public and having sex in “countless locations” — is now being cast as rape and sexual assault.
Mr Brand, now 51, was questioned by police on four occasions between November 2023 and July 2025. On each occasion, he maintained he has “never engaged in any non-consensual sexual activity”.
The former comedian, who is currently on trial accused of raping and sexually assaulting a series of women, said the allegations — first aired in 2023 after an investigation by The Times, Sunday Times, and Channel 4 — are “false”.
In statements provided to detectives, Mr Brand described what he characterised as an openly lived period of promiscuity, including kissing hundreds of fans during public appearances, having sex in toilets, and ending casual sexual encounters abruptly once they were over.
“I led a very promiscuous life in the past, which I have spent years openly denouncing,” he said.
“On 16 September 2023, a defamatory and fictitious documentary was broadcast in conjunction with the publication of two national newspapers containing false anonymised allegations which led to unprecedented media reporting.
“Subsequently, both the media and the police publicly invited additional allegations to be made, which resulted in further encounters being invented or reimagined.”
During a police interview in December 2023, Mr Brand said he did not remember the women who have accused him. However, he added: “It is entirely possible that I may have encountered them and that we may have engaged in consensual sexual activity or physical contact that has since been reimagined.”
He said many interactions with fans were, in his words, “friendly, consensual and warm”, and often involved physical contact.
“At live shows, press events, junkets, and book signings I did my best to be accessible, non discriminatory and loving.
“I spent a lot of time at these events.
“I have shared kisses with hundreds of members of the public during press events and photos of many such kisses, in front of hundreds of people, are available online.
“Everything I did in public once I was famous could be photographed or recorded and end up in the tabloids – I was aware of this.
“I routinely made provocative jokes or comments both with members of the public and during live performances and broadcasts.
“I did on occasion find reasons for leaving, or for asking partners in casual sexual encounters to leave, shortly after the experience had concluded.
“I had sexual encounters in countless locations and scenarios often with people I had just met.
“The way of life that I have described, the magnitude of the promiscuity, deceptively rendered in recent media attacks, accompanied by advertisements for complainants, have caused consensual encounters to be unfavourably reframed decades later.”
Responding to one allegation — that he raped and sexually assaulted an MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar — Mr Brand said it was “likely” he attended the event.
But he said: “At no point would I have touched (her) breasts unless it was consensual.
“I have had consensual sex in toilet cubicles during parties.
“I have never forced anyone into a toilet and I have never forced my penis into anyone’s mouth.
“As I stated at the outset, I have never engaged in any non-consensual sexual activity.”
‘Attempted indecent assault’
Russell Brand denies all the charges he faces.
He is accused of three counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and today an allegation of indecent assault was changed to a charge of attempted indecent assault.
The court has heard evidence from six women who say Mr Brand committed sexual misconduct against them between 1999 and 2009.
Before his rise to fame, Mr Brand is accused of raping a woman he met at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999.
She alleges he removed his clothes, “pranced” around her hotel room, then pinned her to the bed and raped her.
An MTV worker has told the court Mr Brand attempted to drag her into a toilet at work while he was one of the channel’s star presenters, but she said she pulled away.
Mr Brand is accused of groping another MTV worker’s breasts in a Soho bar, then dragging her to a toilet and forcing her into oral sex.
He also faces allegations that he kissed and groped a radio worker in 2005 in front of members of his entourage, and that in 2009 he sexually assaulted a Channel 4 staffer by thrusting his head into her lap after she had been compelled to give him a massage.
Mr Brand is further accused of raping a 21-year-old fan in 2009 after meeting her at one of his Hammersmith Apollo stand-up performances.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His barrister, Ian Winter KC, has told the court Mr Brand denies any non-consensual sex and contends some alleged encounters have been “reimagined” since the accusations first emerged in 2023.
