Sachsgate was the 2008 scandal that cost Russell Brand his job at Radio 2 after he and fellow presenter Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the answering machine of Fawlty Towers legend Andrew Sachs.
The esteemed actor – famous for his role as bumbling Spanish waiter Manuel in the 1970s comedy – was the grandfather of Georgina Baillie, a dancer whom Brand had slept with.
Brand was 33 at the time and Georgina – who was a dancer with a group called Satanic Sluts – was 23 and there was outrage after the messages aired as part of his show.
Mrs Baillie, now 38 years old, told it The mirror her relationship with Brand was consensual, but after the affair she turned to drugs and alcohol after being made the butt of the joke in his comedy routine.
Brand would later apologize to Ms Baillie and pay for her rehabilitation after he “knew his behavior towards me was appalling”, she said.
‘After Sachsgate, Russell made millions of pounds doing a stand-up routine about it and that was very difficult and painful for me – I was the butt of the joke, I was young and didn’t know how to deal with it and I turned turn to drink and drugs,” she said.
Brand and Ross broadcast before apologizing to actor Andrew Sachs on Brand’s BBC Radio 2 show for leaving offensive messages on his answering machine
Russell Brand apologized to Georgina Baillie (pictured in 2008) in 2019 for what he had done and reportedly offered her thousands of pounds to get her back on track
Sachs did not speak to his granddaughter for eight years. Brand eventually wrote him a letter in 2014 – two years before he died – apologizing for the ‘stress, sadness and turbulence’
There was outrage when Brand and his Radio 2 co-host Jonathan Ross left lewd messages on Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs’ phone, boasting about his granddaughter’s bedding.
The BBC received more than 40,000 complaints and Sachs said he was shocked by what the pair had done.
In total, Brand and Ross left three messages on his answering machine, in which they repeatedly and explicitly made statements about his granddaughter’s relationship. At one point Brand even asked if he could be given ‘permission’ to marry Georgina.
While in another mark he told Sachs:
‘But it was consensual and she wasn’t menstruating, it was consensual beautiful sex.
“It was with complete respect that I texted her, I asked her to marry me, Andrew Sachs.”
Later in the show, Ross then said that if people were offended by the jokes they made at Sachs, they were “crazy.”
This week, four women have alleged sexual violence occurred between 2006 and 2013, when Brand worked for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and starred in Hollywood films.
The actor and comedian is also facing claims of controlling, abusive and predatory behaviour, following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.
Ms Baillie says she was never attacked by Brand but hopes ‘these alleged survivors get the help they need’.
Ms Baillie, now 38, turned to drugs and alcohol after the affair. She is now a successful artist and lives with her mother in Bedford
“As part of the 12-step program, one of the steps is to personally address issues with people who have been harmed by you, but in Russell’s case there are probably so many that it’s impossible,” she added.
Brand and then controller of Radio 2, Lesley Douglas, quit as a result, while Ross was also suspended from broadcasting for three months, and there was a change in the way the BBC output was vetted.
Both Brand and Ross apologized for their actions and later in October 2008, and in the same month, the same BBC also apologized to Sachs.
In 2009, Ofcom also fined the BBC £150,000 for the calls, describing them as ‘needlessly offensive, demeaning and demeaning’.
During an interview for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2013, Brand claimed the scandal broke out because he had become entangled in an anti-BBC ‘agenda’.
But he reiterated his apology for the upset the incident caused, but suggested it was an “unfair scandal” because it was hijacked by those motivated by prejudice against the company.
In 2014, two years before Sachs died, Brand wrote a letter of apology to him, saying he regretted the “distress, sadness and turbulence” caused.
He added: ‘I apologize for the damage I have caused to your family relationships and for robbing you of your peace of mind. This behavior and the consequences you have suffered as a result of my actions are unacceptable.
“This is not the man I want to be and I sincerely apologize to both of you.
‘I am also sorry that it has taken me so long to write to you expressing this sentiment that you two deserve… please do not hesitate to contact me… My sincere apologies for the pain I have caused you and your family.’
In 2019, he also apologized to Georgina for what he had done and reportedly offered her ‘thousands of pounds’ to get her back on track, after she revealed that the incident had turned her to drugs and that she now is a successful artist who lives with her mother. in Bedford.