[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Russell Brand lost his agent in the wake of the horrific sexual assault accusations that came out over the weekend.
As we previously reported, four women came forward to accuse the 48-year-old comedian of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse in incidents that happened between 2006 and 2013. In The Sunday Times exposé, one of the victims – who used the pseudonym Alice – claimed she was only 16 years old when a then 30-year-old Russell began a three-month relationship with her in 2006. His management at the time knew about their romance.
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While the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star was “very charming and very attentive” at first, she said he eventually became very controlling and “emotionally and sexually abusive.” At one point in the relationship, Alice alleged he even “forced his penis down her throat,” causing her to choke, and would not stop until she punched him hard in the stomach. Awful.
Years after their breakup, it turns out Alice reached out to Russell’s talent agency Tavistock Wood’s co-founder Angharad Wood in 2020 and shared her horrific experience with the actor. The victim told them she only wanted an apology. But instead, Alice got an “aggressive” message from an attorney representing Russell insinuating that she wanted money. So they were aware of these serious allegations for three years and did nothing?! They just took his word for it? What the f**k.
It was not until this week that the agency decided to drop him after learning about all of the accusations from The Sunday Times. As for why the company took action now? Tavistock Wood told Deadline in a statement they were “horribly misled” by Russell:
“Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him. TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”
Wow…
Russell has denied the allegations. He preemptively fired back in a video posted on social media, insisting that this relationships were “always consensual”:
“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.”
Despite his attempts to get ahead of this scandal, Russell clearly is facing the consequences — when it comes to his career and in the court of public opinion. Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via Russell Brand/Instagram]
