How Russell Brand went on Newsnight and Question Time and guest-edited the New Statesman after reinventing himself as a social justice warrior (but not everyone took him seriously)
When Russell Brand first came onto the scene, he was known for being a serial womanizer and battling addiction.
The Sun named him ‘Shagger of the Year’ three times in a row from 2006 to 2008 and he is said to have slept with more than 1,000 women. The comedian openly boasted about his promiscuous past, once claiming to have bedded nine women in one night.
After a stint in rehab, the sex and drug addict began trying to turn the tide of his reputation.
In recent years, he has become a successful online influencer and wellness guru and has more than six million subscribers to his YouTube channel.
After years of drugs, partying, sex and rehab, Brand settled down and married his wife Laura Gallacher in 2017 before the couple welcomed two young daughters – Mabel and Penny – and are now expecting a third child.
The Sun named Russell Brand ‘Shagger of the Year’ three times in a row from 2006 to 2008 and the comedian openly boasted about his promiscuous behavior during the early stages of his career
Brand is photographed in July 2010 wearing his underpants while filming scenes for the remake of the 1981 film Arthur
Known for his interest in spirituality, Brand last month promoted his next major wellness event – Community 2024 – aimed at helping personal awakening and social change.
In an interview with The guard In 2017, Brand himself said that he is “less angry now.”
“I was a needy person,” he said. “I mean, that condition persists, but I can deal with it better now, I think.”
In 2014, he posted a photo of himself holding up a T-shirt with the black, bold, capital letters “No More Page 3” as he threw his support behind the campaign.
He thanked his then girlfriend Jemima Khan for ‘the wake-up call’ and declared ‘teenage sexist I have been murdered’.
Not all commentators were convinced by his new image, with Dr Brooke Magnanti – a research scientist and former sex worker – turning the spotlight on his tweet in which he declared that ‘the love of a good woman’ had pushed him to change his behaviour.
She wrote inside The Telegraph: ‘What the hell does that mean? That all the other women – of which he says there were quite a few, including ex-wife Katy Perry – were not good enough to convince Brand that sexism was not an issue?’
Today, ex Rhian Sugden broke her silence about the 48-year-old subsequently backing the campaign Saturday bomb Dispatches documentary.
However, glamor model Rhian, 37, who insisted nothing untoward happened when they were together, claimed Russell joined the No More Page 3 campaign in 2014 after failing to ‘talk his way’ through the list of models.
Ex Rhian Sugden claimed Brand joined the No More Page 3 campaign in 2014 after failing to ‘work his way through the model list’
When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, ex-Lothario Brand described it as a “real awakening.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine in January 2019, he said he had no regrets about his past.
He praised the #MeToo movement, adding, “No (I don’t regret my past). I just feel it (the movement) is a very positive change. It is a sign of true awakening.”
And talking about his own shift in attitudes towards sex and marriage, he added: ‘When I think ‘oh, that person is attractive’, the next thought is ‘yeah, but if you ever do something, realize you thought it would destroy your whole life’. . That voice is now in my head.’
In 2012 he was on Newsnight to discuss how drug addicts are treated and got into a heated debate with Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, in which the latter accused Brand of ‘being aggressive towards me in the past’.
Hitchens wondered: ‘Why does a comedian get a program on the BBC promoting drug policy? Why is the debate about drugs so vile that this is the kind of thing we’re reduced to?”
A year later, The New Statesman announced that Brand was guest editor of a special issue on the theme of Revolution.
Brand appeared on Newsnight in 2012, where he clashed with Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens in a heated debate over the way drug addicts are treated
He appeared as a panellist on Question Time in 2014 and made headlines again during a heated row with Nigel Farage. He also had to apologize for being ‘sexist’ towards Penny Mordaunt
The edition focused on climate change, gay rights, transcendental meditation and dealing with substance abuse and included contributions from Gary Lineker, Noel Gallagher and Alec Baldwin.
In 2014, the comic appeared on the Question Time panel alongside then UKIP leader Nigel Farage, where he clashed with Brand over immigration and whether Britain is ‘overcrowded’.
The comic branded Farage a ‘pound shop Enoch Powell’, while a member of the public called on him to stand for election to Parliament.
Brand was forced to apologize for ‘sexism’ after telling fellow panellist Penny Mordaunt, who praised the firefighters,: ‘Pay their pensions and then love.’
While he only appeared in Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO in June in an hour and 40 minute interview titled: ‘Russell Brand FINALLY Opens: Escaping a Life of Fear, Addiction and Finding Love! ‘
In his opening gambit, the entrepreneur said: “Russell Brand is one of the most fascinating individuals I have ever spoken to. A former self-harmer, heroin addict, self-confessed narcissist, bulimic who craved fame and attention.
‘And was so addicted to sex that he slept with five women a day. Dat married Katy Perry three months after meeting her, then divorced her via text message.
“Have you ever had that subtle feeling that the way you’re living isn’t quite right? That something is out of balance somewhere?
‘That you are not living your life the way that person somewhere inside you should live his life. The Russell Brand sitting in front of me can agree with it. And he has found a new remedy for that feeling.’
The interview has been viewed more than 2.5 million times and has generated more than 7,000 responses.