Rhian Sugden, who briefly dated the 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' actor, has offered favorable comments about the comic as he is facing damning allegations from multiple women.
- Sep 17, 2023
AceShowbiz - Russell Brand's ex-girlfriend has claimed he "treated [her] well." The 48-year-old comedian is facing accusations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse from four women at the height of his career in a bombshell expose from The Times, Sunday Times and Channel4's "Dispatches" programme, but Rhian Sugden, who briefly dated the "Get Him to the Greek" star, insisted nothing untoward happened when they were together.
Confirming she had been approached by reporters "months back," the 37-year-old former glamour model insisted she had nothing to tell them. "I had reporters and Dispatches knocking on my parents door months back asking for information on Russell Brand as we briefly dated when I was younger," she wrote on X, which was formerly known as Twitter.
"He was always very pleasant to me and treated me well. Despite him attempting to s*** his way through other page 3 girls and getting declined he soon went full circle and joined a 'No More Page 3 campaign' to get us shut down. I can't comment on the allegations that have been made against him, I've no scoop on the fella except his hair used to smell bad and he definitely wasn't the one that got away (sic)."
I had reporters and Dispatches knocking on my parents door months back asking for information on Russell Brand as we briefly dated when I was younger.
— Rhian Sugden (@Rhianmarie) September 16, 2023
He was always very pleasant to me and treated me well.
Despite him attempting to shag his way through other page 3 girls and… pic.twitter.com/iqkbnLYdw3
One woman has alleged Brand raped her in his Los Angeles home, while another accused him of grooming her as they were involved in an allegedly "emotionally abusive and controlling relationship" for three months when she was just 16 and still at school, and he was 31.
A third accuser claimed the comic sexually assaulted her while she worked with him in Los Angeles, and that he threatened to take legal action if she told anyone else about her allegation, and a fourth detailed the alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse she was subjected to.
Ahead of The Times publishing their report, Brand shared a 2 minute, 45 second video on YouTube and X strongly denying the claims and arguing the allegations were part of a "serious, concerted agenda" to control "spaces" such as his online outlet.
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, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like 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, often 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."
"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..."
"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 want to 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."
