Days after speaking at America Fest 2025, disgraced British comedian and actor Russell Brand was charged with two additional counts: one of rape and one of sexual assault. These allegations, which involve two women, follow April’s five charges of sexual assault, which involve four women.
Brand, 50, converted to Christianity in 2023, shortly after an exposé about his alleged misbehavior led to a London police investigation. In May, Brand pleaded not guilty to the five original counts—two of rape, one of indecent assault, and two of sexual assault. He remains on conditional bail until his trial for those charges in June.
The two additional charges are for acts that allegedly occurred in 2009. Brand will appear in court regarding the two new charges on Jan. 20.
Although Brand has admitted to living like “a fool” and being “very, very promiscuous” before becoming a Christian, he has denied engaging in “nonconsensual activity.” In a Dec. 23 Christmas message, the podcaster and conservative influencer mentioned his “years of mindlessness in sin” and called trials “gifts from God.”
Russell Brand: ‘Attack Can Bring About Grace’
Russell Brand’s legal problems began with the 2023 documentary “Russell Brand: In Plain Sight.” In a joint investigation, the Sunday Times, the Times, and Channel 4’s “Dispatches” interviewed women who alleged that the comedian had raped or sexually assaulted them as far back as 1999. The London Metropolitan Police then launched an investigation that a spokesman described as “ongoing.”
Several months after the documentary aired, Brand began talking publicly about reading the Bible and other Christian works. In April 2024, he was baptized and said he felt “changed” as a result.
Since then, Brand has chatted with high-profile Christians. He’s also made headlines for baptizing a friend while wearing only underwear and for saying that Kanye West’s song about Adolf Hitler is “catchy.”
On Dec. 23, after police announced the two additional charges against Brand, the actor posted a Christmas message on social media. “Accept all things, even trials as gifts from God,” the caption read, in part. “Jesus is real.”
In a two-minute video on X, Brand called Jesus “the light and the power,” adding, “This is a time of great darkness…a time of confusion and dispute and conflict.” He continued:
But I’ve learned in my own life that attack can bring about grace. I’m so grateful for the opportunity…to participate in change and transformation and growth and love, and I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to atone for the many things over the years that I did wrong and the opportunity to ensure that people understand the truth of my situation and scenario.
Brand asked God that viewers would pay attention to media and politics, which use “bureaucracy increasingly to legitimize authority.” He also prayed that anyone he has “harmed or hurt in my years of mindlessness in sin would be healed [and] for the absolute truth of who I am to be abundantly revealed and who I’ve always been, Lord…because I am your creation.”
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