An arguably uncomfortable 2014 interview featuring Russell Brand and Lindsay Lohan has resurfaced after the comedian-turned-right-wing influencer was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault.
“Sometimes they would leave me in police cells for a while and I didn’t like that very much,” Russell, now 51, said while appearing alongside Lohan, now 40, on a 2014 episode of The Jonathan Ross Show and after saying he had never been “jailed” for his “behavior.”
“It’s tiresome in there,” Brand continued of his 2012 New Orleans arrest for an alleged altercation with a photographer. “It’s lonely. It’s hard to build rapport.”
The now-disgraced British comedian added of his experience being arrested in the United States, “The police are so much more friendly [in the U.K.]. For a start, in our country we cuff the hands in front, not behind the back. The police cars? All crunched up in there. They took all my drugs from me. In fact, it’s boring in the cell — that’s when you need drugs … Cruel, really.” (Brand turned himself into the New Orleans Police Department on March 15, 2012, facing a misdemeanor charge for simple criminal damage to property. He posted bail and reportedly settled the legal matter.)
More than a decade later, Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The comedian was accused by four women of multiple instances of sexual abuse between 2004 and 2009. (The actor was found not guilty on three of the seven total counts.)
“I’m good, I’m good,” Brand mouthed to his legal team in the courtroom after the verdict was rendered.
After his conviction and subsequent sentencing, Brand was accused of additional sexual misconduct by six more women. According to a Thursday, November 12, report by the Times of London, Brand’s additional accusers attended his comedy shows in the past and who subsequently felt afraid to contact the police. They reportedly decided to come forward in the wake of his sentencing in solidarity with the women who testified during his trial. (The comedian has maintained his innocence in the wake of his trial and among additional allegations.)
Singer Katy Perry’s comments about her “controlling” ex-husband in a 2013 Vogue interview also resurfaced in the wake of his prison sentence.
“[Russell] didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour,” Perry, now 51, recalled to the outlet at the time. “So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting.”
(The “Firework” singer tied the knot with Brand in India in October 2010, though the relationship imploded just several months later. Perry was filming her 2012 documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me at the very moment Brand texted her in late 2011 to announce that he was filing for divorce.)
“In the very beginning of me getting into the industry, I would be out and about and I would hear girls, or actresses or musicians or whatever, they would say, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to be in a relationship because I don’t want to have to choose between being in a relationship and having a career,’” Perry recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘Pfft, when I find that person that’s going to be my life partner, I will never have to choose because they’ll be accepting of me completely. … They won’t be threatened or have weird motives.’”
She continued, “[My partner] will be accepting of me, the things I love, the ambition, what I aspire to, what I want to create. They’ll be accepting and supportive. I started to realize, ‘Oh my God, that’s not true. That fairytale I had for me is not true for me right now.’”
Days after Brand was sentenced to prison, his ex-girlfriend Jemima Goldsmith also accused the Get Him to the Greek actor of abuse.
“Firstly, and most importantly, I am and have always been strongly and unequivocally on the side of all of Brand’s victims,” Goldsmith, 52, wrote via X on Monday, November 9. “I am in awe of the courageous women who came forward at Brand’s trial, told their stories, testified and ensured justice was done. I have had my own personal experience of his violence, coercive control and abuse.”
Goldsmith — who dated Brand, 51, for roughly a year around 2014 — claimed that she was once forced to contact police to have him removed from her home during an alleged “violence incident.”
“I chose not to press charges at the time and not to go public with this, as I was worried about the impact of the press attention on my then teenage children,” she claimed. “I have neither seen nor spoken to Brand since that period in 2014. Whilst my pain in relation to this pales in comparison to what the women have testified in court have suffered, this was a difficult period in my life which has had a lasting impact.”
Us reached out to Brand’s attorney for comment at the time but did not hear back.
The Metropolitan Police previously confirmed to Us that detectives are not done investigating the alleged actions of Brand.
“The Met’s investigation into allegations of rape made by two women remains ongoing,” a Met Police spokesperson said in a statement to Us without identifying any of the alleged victims. “The suspect has previously been interviewed under caution in connection with the allegations.”
Anyone who wishes to speak to detectives or make a report can contact the investigation team by email at CSOU@met.police.uk.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
