Russell Brand has continued to tour despite allegations from four women of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse over a seven-year period.
The women alleged the sexual assaults occurred between 2006 and 2013 while Brand was a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 in the U.K, as well as when he was an actor in Hollywood. In a Friday video posted to X, formerly Twitter, Brand denied the allegations leveled against him.
Brand appeared at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre on Saturday, as part of a recently organized tour. According to one social media post, the comedian and actor was confronted on stage since the allegations were made.
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The Claim
A TikTok posted on September 17, 2023, shows Russell Brand on stage with a caption above it that said “Russell Brand Gig ‘We don’t want you here’ after R*pe claims.”
The video shows Brand talking onstage before someone can be heard saying “We don’t want you here” to which it appears the crowd booes and Brand replies “Don’t shout stuff like that out.”
The Facts
Russell Brand’s show in London took place on Saturday evening, the same night that Channel 4’s investigative series Dispatches released its documentary about the allegations against him. By this point, Brand had already released a video denying allegations and hinting the news may be part of a “coordinated attack.”
In the video, Brand said his relationships have been “always consensual” and that he strongly denies “these very serious criminal allegations.”
“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,” he said.
The video footage from TikTok, however, is not from the comedian’s show on Saturday, and neither was there a heckler shouting “We don’t want you here.”
The original footage was posted both on Brand’s YouTube channel on June 8, 2017, and again on May 8, 2023, on his TikTok.
The YouTube video shows it was taken from his “Re:Birth” tour, a performance of which was recorded for Netflix. The name of his latest tour is “Bipolarisation.”
Although the 2017 footage does show the comedian being heckled, no one shouts: “We don’t want you here.” In the original interaction, an audience member shouts out “Racist!” Brand calls the heckler “some sort of d*******” before apparently reconciling.
It’s not clear whether the heckler was responding to something Brand had said or made the comment spontaneously.
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Monday that it had received a report of alleged sexual assault following the Dispatches documentary broadcast.
“We are aware of reporting by the Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches about allegations of sexual offences,” a Met Police spokesman said.
“On Sunday 17 September, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003. Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.
“We first spoke with the Sunday Times on Saturday 16 September and have since made further approaches to the Sunday Times and Channel 4 to ensure that anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sexual offence is aware of how to report this to the police.
“We continue to encourage anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago it was, to contact us.”
Newsweek emailed a contact address for Russell Brand available via his website for comment.
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
The video of an audience member heckling Russell Brand was posted in 2017 and did not include the comment “We don’t want you here.” It was filmed during the comedian’s “Re:Birth” tour.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team