Comedian Russell Brand admits to ‘exploitative sex’ with 16-year-old girl at height of fame
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Actor-comedian Russell Brand arrives in court after further charges were added to his rape and multiple sexual assault case in London, Britain, on Feb 24, 2026.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – British actor-comedian Russell Brand has acknowledged sleeping with a 16-year-old girl when he was at the height of his fame. But he said that while it was “exploitative”, it was not illegal.
“The age of consent is 16 and I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30,” he told American right-wing host Megyn Kelly in a YouTube show broadcast on April 22.
“But when I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
He insisted it had been a consensual encounter, but added “when you’re a famous man who has the ability to attract women... I think, involves exploitation”.
“I think it is exploitative,” Brand, now 50, admitted to Kelly on her show, adding: “I recognise that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish and I did not apply enough consideration... to how that sex was affecting other people.”
Brand, who was married to American pop star Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012, has pleaded not guilty to sexual offence charges in Britain involving a total of six women, including rape and sexual assault.
His trial is due to start in October in a London court.
Brand, once a left-leaning political campaigner, has rebranded himself as a conservative and Christian guru to millions of social media followers.
Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, he began his stand-up comedy career as a teenager, eventually working as a presenter on music video channel MTV and host of a reality TV series.
He presented a show on the BBC’s Radio 2 station between 2006 and 2008, but quit after an on-air prank when he left an explicit voicemail for Fawlty Towers (1975 to 1979) actor Andrew Sachs. AFP
