Comedian and actor Russell Brand has recently been accused of sexual assault, rape and abuse by several women at his previous workplaces. In light of these allegations, the 48-year-old comedian, who is currently performing in the United Kingdom for his Bipolarisation tour, has had to postpone three shows. The show’s promoters released a statement saying, “We are postponing these few remaining addiction charity fundraiser shows, we don’t like doing it — but we know you’ll understand.”
However, Russell performed at the show scheduled to be held at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London on Saturday night. According to reports by The Hollywood Reporter, Russell said at the show, “I really appreciate your support, I love you, and I want to do a fantastic show for you… I’ve got a lot of things to talk to you about. There are obviously some things that I absolutely cannot talk about, and I appreciate that you will understand.”
For the unversed, five women recently accused the comedian of sexual assault, rape and abuse from between 2006 and 2013, when Russell worked in Hollywood and presented for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4. One of the women claimed that she was 16 years old at the time of the alleged assault. Now, The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches will conduct a joint investigation in this regard.
Russell had earlier denied these accusations in a video he posted on his Instagram handle. In the video, he said, “I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”
A post shared by Russell Brand (@russellbrand)
He continued, “These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies; and as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. 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’m being transparent about it now as well. To see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny.”
However, after Russell posted the video, several other women also wrote to The Times alleging that they had also been subjected to such behaviour by the comedian. UK’s government minister Caroline Nokes urged Scotland Yard to investigate these allegations. Scotland Yard told People magazine that London’s Metropolitan Police will look into this matter.
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