Russell Brand addressed fans at a show in London tonight, just hours after allegations emerged from a number of women accusing him of rape, sexual assault, and physical and emotional abuse.
Brand was fulfilling a date at the 2,000 capacity Troubadour Theatre in Wembley this evening (September 16) as part of his Bipolarisation tour.
However, whilst he thanked fans for attending and showing their support, he also admitted that there are some things that he simply can’t talk about at the moment due to the seriousness of the recent allegations made against him, as well as the potential for further investigation.
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The investigation into Brand’s past since, focusing on a time between 2006 and 2013, was undertaken by The Times and Channel 4 documentary series Dispatches.
Brand will have been in the theatre at the time that this evening’s Dispatches went out to millions around the UK at 9:00pm.
At the venue this evening, Brand told the crowds that he wouldn’t be able to talk about the allegations.
He was dressed in a black jacket and jeans, whilst also wearing a pair of large sunglasses on his face as he entered the stage door of the theatre.
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On stage, he told the 2,000-strong crowd: "I really appreciate your support. I love you.
“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 can not talk about - and I appreciate that you will understand."
Before the allegations were published, Brand went onto his YouTube and X – formerly Twitter- accounts to share a video refuting and categorically denying the allegations against him.
In that video, posted yesterday (15 September), he said: "I've received two extremely disturbing letters or a letter and an email.
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"One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.
"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.
"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. 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.
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"And to see that transparency metastasised into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?
"Particularly when we've seen coordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn't approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language."
He continued: "I'm aware that you guys have been saying in the comments for a while 'watch out, Russell. They're coming for you, you're getting too close to the truth, Russell Brand did not kill himself'.
"I know that a year ago there was a spate of articles - Russell Brand's a conspiracy theorist, Russell Brand's right wing. I'm aware of news media making phone calls, sending letters to people I know for ages and ages.
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"It's being clear to me, or at least it feels to me like there's a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces and these kind of voices. And I mean, my voice along with your voice.
"I don't mind them using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations.
"Also, it's worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narrative that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.
"Now, I don't wanna get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I'm being attacked and plainly they're working very closely together. We are obviously going to look into this matter 'cause it's very, very serious.
If you have been a victim of sexual assault or rape, you can contact www.rapecrisis.org.uk or call the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999, where help and resources are available.
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, UK News, Russell Brand
Tom Wood