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RUSSELL Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The disgraced former comedian, 51, was remanded in custody after the verdicts on Thursday and is due to be sentenced on Monday.

Russell Brand was found not guilty of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

His wife Laura Gallacher supported him throughout the trial, while his father Ron Brand was also present at court.

Who is Russell Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher?

Laura, 39, is an author, illustrator and entrepreneur who founded The Joy Journal – a business focused on creativity and activities for families.

She is the daughter of former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher and younger sister of TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher.

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Laura and Brand first met at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, where she attended one of his comedy shows.

They started dating but split in 2007 after she discovered he was seeing other women.

Brand went on to marry American singer Katy Perry in 2010, before the pair divorced in 2012.

He rekindled his relationship with Laura in 2015, and they married at a church near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire in August 2017.

Laura accompanied her husband to Southwark Crown Court during his trial and gave evidence for the defence in October.

She described him as an “amazingly attentive husband” and a “wonderful father”, telling jurors: “I love him very much.”

Laura was in the public gallery when the jury returned its guilty verdicts and appeared visibly distressed as the judge told Brand he faced a significant prison term.

Who are Russell Brand’s parents?

Brand is the only child of Barbara Elizabeth Nichols and Ronald Henry Brand, known as Ron.

His parents separated when he was just six months old, leaving his mother to raise him in Grays, Essex.

Barbara suffered three bouts of cancer during Brand’s childhood, and he sometimes stayed with relatives while she underwent treatment.

The last period of treatment coincided with Brand leaving home at the age of 16.

In 2006, he told the Observer: “I loved my mum madly, but I had a lot of prohibiting, inhibiting things around. My feeling about my childhood was that it was lonely and difficult.”

His father Ron worked as a photographer and was largely absent as Brand was growing up, although they maintained contact.

Ron attended Southwark Crown Court when his son was convicted on November 5.

Speaking to the BBC following the verdicts, he said he was “bemused and shocked”.

He added: “I just didn’t expect this – it’s wrong. It’s devastating.”

How many children does Russell Brand have?

Brand and Laura have three children together – two daughters and a son.

Their eldest daughter was born in November 2016, followed by another girl in July 2018.

The couple welcomed a son in 2023, and have largely kept their kids’ lives out of the public eye.

Laura confirmed during her evidence that they were raising three children together.

Following the emergence of allegations against Brand, the family relocated to Florida in 2024.

After the guilty verdicts, Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC asked the judge to grant bail as an “act of humanity” so he could say goodbye to his little ones.

However, the request was rejected and he was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

In Los Angeles, we’re truly spoiled. We have sunny weather most of the year along with several beaches where we can cool off. We also have dozens of wonderful restaurants that showcase the diversity of the city as well as all of the entertainment one could ever ask for. As if that weren’t already enough, L.A. is home to some of the coolest and most exciting brands.

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All of the gifts featured on this list are from L.A. brands — some of which were created by native Angelenos like visual artist Lauren Halsey and Cash Saunders of the Shea Parlor. Only a handful of the businesses have storefronts, while others serve their customers online (and sometimes at local flea markets). All of them, though, serve as reminders of why purchasing a gift from a neighbor is a way bigger flex than shopping at a big-box store.

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Mao founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and ruled through tumultuous decades in the 1960s and 1970s.

His attempt at rapid industrialisation, which he called the Great Leap Forward, led to a famine that killed tens of millions. Then came the Cultural Revolution: a violent purge of anyone seen as a threat to Communism, which included Chinese intellectuals, landowners, artists and often rivals within the Party.

His death in 1976 brought a new era for China, which began to open its doors to the global economy. Even as the country moved away from Mao’s rule, he continued to be hailed by the party as a national icon whose legacy was beyond reproach.

So jokes or memes about Mao are seen not just as an insult to the party but also its closely-guarded narrative about the country’s past.

It’s unclear when the Mbappé meme involving Mao began but the nickname – “the dictator” – has made the striker the subject of many memes and jokes online.

In 2024, he sued a French influencer and kebab shop owner for using his name in the description of one of the shop’s sandwiches, leading to more jokes about the nickname.

France team-mate Ousmane Dembele jumped on the trend during the 2026 World Cup, calling Mbappé Mobut – a reference to Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator who ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, for three decades.

In an interview with France Football in September, Mbappé acknowledged the light-heartedness behind many of these memes, but said they “sometimes reveal a lack of political and human awareness among people”.

“There’s a side that’s a bit less funny, because we know the damage people like that have caused throughout history,” he said.

“Being compared to people who murder others, or who have made millions upon millions of people miserable… I don’t think I’ve done that in my life.”

Additional reporting by Fan Wang and Osmond Chia