Did ‘master manipulator’ Russell Brand use lovers as pawns in fame game? Spice Girl fling to ‘world famous’ woman plot
DESCRIBED as “ruthless, calculated and manipulative”, the depravity of Russell Brand has appalled the nation as every chilling detail of his sex attacks played out in court.
By his own admission, he was a “hedonist” and “an exploiter of women” who used his celebrity status and every emotional tool in his arsenal to achieve what he considered to be “my birthright” – having an “orgasm”.
Brand, who was jailed for 10 years and six months this week, said he had “dedicated a lot of [his] life” to “beyond reckless philandering” – acts that saw him be “persuasive, seductive, begging and flirting” and even pretend to be gay to sleep with women.
Now, in the wake of him being convicted for three sexual assaults and one rape, more questions have emerged about this master of manipulation and what else he sought to control.
It has been speculated that even his romances may have had a calculated nature behind them – apparently benefiting his career, status, wealth or a combination of them all.
Most notable in this theory is his relationship with Katy Perry. Before dating and then marrying the popstar, all within the space of 10 months, an ex-girlfriend claimed Brand told her his aim was to find a world-famous girlfriend in order to make him a global superstar.
At the time in 2010, Brand was famous in the UK for his stand-up specials, hosting Celebrity Big Brother spin-off Big Mouth and had parodied himself in films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek and St Trinian’s.
But the comedian was barely known stateside and no doubt, a relationship with Perry – who was quickly becoming the world’s most famous popstar thanks to mega hits I Kissed a Girl, Hot N Cold and Teenage Dream – would help him to achieve that.
Brand himself admitted that he “pushed to get married early” due to feeling “inadequate and insecure” and according to Perry, he longed to be “an equal” both in their relationship and to be seen as one by the outside world.
But this determination to be considered on the same level manifested itself in a dark way. It led him to “mock her and be mean behind her back,” according to one source, who claimed he “just couldn’t cope with her star eclipsing his”.
It also led him to share a deliberately unflattering, make-up free photo of Perry to his 1.8million followers on Twitter, now known as X, in 2010 – an act decreed as “cruel”, “mean” and “disrespectful” by fans.
While Brand deleted the snap within 48 minutes of posting, it had already gone viral and exposed his wife to bile from online trolls across the globe, who eagerly branded her “ugly” among other hurtful comments.
A source who knew the couple told The Times that Brand “found himself resenting her success” while “her career rocketed” and his was waning – most notably after his film Arthur, which he had been “given full rein on”, flopped at the Box Office in 2011.
Brand would later admit he “didn’t handle [their] marriage very well” due to his insecurity and loneliness while Perry was “pursuing her dream of … becoming the world’s most famous pop star”. They divorced in 2012.
Yet the romance with Perry wasn’t the only time Brand has faced claims of having weaponised his love life for fame and financial gain.
Back in 2006, Brand’s career was still in its early days. He was a BBC Radio host, presenter on Big Brother Efourum – later known as Big Mouth – and had appeared on shows like Richard & Judy, Kings of Comedy and The Bill.
That soon changed after he was photographed with world-renowned supermodel Kate Moss following a one night stand and the subsequent war of words in the love triangle involving them and Libertines frontman Pete Doherty.
The publicity from those snaps coupled with the attention garnered from fuming Doherty calling him a “hairy t***” and “no replacement”, gave Brand’s star a huge bump.
A year on from their romp, Brand had made a whopping 19 appearances on TV shows including on The Royal Variety Performance, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year and Soccer AM.
He had also presented The BRIT Awards and released his first memoir My Booky Wook.
Brand would also capitalise from the Moss tryst by boasting about it in his second autobiography, My Booky Wook 2, where he described Moss as like “an angel of my own devising”.
Prior to those feats, Brand seemed keen to distance himself from bad boy, lothario image and paint himself in a more wholesome light by claiming he was ready for lasting love.
He told the Mirror in 2006 about having sworn off sex and his master plan: “I’d like to settle down and have children.”
Yet at the same time, Brand – who claimed to have deleted 784 numbers from his phone to avoid temptation – ferociously flirted with his female interviewer.
When asked how long his abstinence, then at 22 days, would last, he replied: “Is that an offer? Because it’s incredibly indiscreet!”
Brand would later tell her: “You’re quite attractive and it’s making me think I should maybe face the other way a bit more.
“I think it’s the tights, your hair, the cleavage, the boots. And you’re all cute and blushy and Northern and sweet.”
Brand would tell her “blushing is an indication of sexual availability” and quizzed her about cheating multiple times, including asking: “Are you faithful at the minute?”
That was the same year, that Brand was accused of drugging and raping a 20-year-old student at an Edinburgh flat he was renting.
Brand denied any knowledge of the 2006 claims and, later, his friend Trevor Lock was charged with rape. The case was later dropped by police and prosecutors.
‘Constant reinvention’ helps manipulators like Brand ‘escape from their previous crimes’
PSYCHOTHERAPIST Susie Masterson warns The Sun that the type of behaviour displayed by Russell Brand fits into the predators’ playbook:
As a trauma informed therapist, having trained and worked for Rape Crisis, I’ve observed the patterns of behaviour exhibited by predators such as Russell Brand for over a decade.
Ultimately, these behaviours stem from entitlement. In my upcoming book, Female Loading: How To Survive And Thrive In The Age Of Outrage, I explore the psychology of entitlement in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein files showed us the extent of entitlement across men in positions of power. It wasn’t only presidents and princes, the extensive list also included financiers and academics.
What these men all have in common is authority.
Authority leads to power and control over the actions of others. Over time, compliance from others reinforces the belief of superior competence and worth. As a result, the privileges, exceptions and special treatment that initially came as external perks of the job, become internalised as personal rights.
Personal rights often manifest as entitlement to rewards including access to financial resources and career advancement, but also to relationships and sex.
Manipulators and predators require constant affirmation, validation and compliance from others. In psychoanalytic theory this is called ‘narcissistic supply’. To maintain this supply over a period of time, usually requires reinvention. When one well runs dry, the predator needs to find a new source of attention.
The pivot to wellness, spirituality, or anti-establishment rhetoric is rarely accidental – these communities are often deeply trusting, seek healing, and value emotional openness, making them uniquely vulnerable to charismatic, confident newcomers claiming to hold hidden truths.
Constant reinvention also helps manipulators minimise their previous actions, by compartmentalising it to a previous era.
He also started dating future wife Laura Gallagher – then a 19-year-old art student, while he was 31 – that same year. They broke up in 2007 after he cheated on her multiple times.
The next known relationship was with Perry, who he spent two years married to before dumping her and demanding a divorce via text message in 2012.
A source, who knew the couple, claimed the split followed his struggles living stateside and dealing with “her star eclipsing his”.
They added: “He was becoming more disillusioned spending time in Hollywood and the failure of Arthur – a project he had been given full rein on.”
That year Brand returned to the UK and appeared to be attempting to reestablish himself as a British icon, with performances including at the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
He appeared in a BBC documentary about substance abuse and addiction – which drew heavily from heroin and sex addictions, made a comeback comedy tour called Only Joking and even briefly dated Spice Girl Geri Horner.
The romance was over in less than two weeks but was so intense that the singer and Brand apparently spent three days looking at houses together in North Devon, according to a source.
At the time of the split, Horner said: “It’s been a whirlwind. All I want is to be in a loving relationship. Is he my ideal man? I’m choosy. I want someone who’s trustworthy, sweet and kind.”
By 2014, Brand had reinvented himself again as an activist – following a scandal-hit relationship with Jemima Goldsmith, the then-editor of political magazine The Spectator.
Post Brand’s conviction, she claimed to have suffered “violence, coercive control and abuse” during their year-long romance. She has not reported those claims to the police.
Their split followed an alleged 2014 “violent incident”, which ended with her having to “call the police to have him removed from my house”.
Prior to the break up, there was more trouble linked to a masseuse hired by Brand, who claimed she was treated “like a prostitute” and was “the victim of wrongful and criminal conduct” – which the couple denied.
The case was investigated by police but no charges were brought. Masseuse Szilvia Berki was taken to the High Court, where she had no legal representation and would be bankrupted by the £50,000 legal costs she was forced to pay.
She was subjected to a type of gagging order called an anti-harassment injunction, which prevented her from speaking about the case.
While the case was all unfolding, Brand was painting himself as a man of the people and campaigner.
He released a book titled Revolution, which criticised capitalism and claimed democracy was broken.
He joined housing and anti-gentrification protests and a group of young mothers who refused to leave their homes after being issued with eviction notices after funding was cut at their hostels.
Then in 2015, when the case with masseuse Berki was settled, he started dating future wife Laura for a second time – a woman he married two years later and had three kids with.
Recalling how Brand came back into her life, Laura told Grazia in 2020: “My ex had literally moved out of our flat that day, and I was heartbroken, with mascara running down my face
“A friend dragged me out on a walk to the canal in east London, where I’d never been in my life, and as we came on to the footpath, Russell was standing there, like he’d organised it.”
Laura would remain a bedrock who has stood by him through the claims of abuse in Channel 4’s Dispatches in September 2023 and the many police interviews that would follow.
In the lead up to those years, Brand had already started to raise doubts about the government, police and media online.
He began sharing dangerous myths that the Covid-19 jabs posed a risk to health and peddled anti-establishment narratives.
Six months after the documentary came out, Brand was baptised in the River Thames by TV adventurer Bear Grylls in a Christian rebrand that would endear him to religious worshippers in America and the UK.
Since then Brand has peddled false theories about the ‘mainstream media’, claimed those who spoke out are often silenced and pushed extreme far right theories.
It led to fans championing his cause outside of Southwark Crown Court throughout his trial – including one group with a banner that read: “Christ was crucified for telling the truth, Russell is the truth”.
Those worshippers will likely continue to cast doubt upon the three sexual assault and one rape convictions that a jury found Brand guilty of last week.
But for all of the many faces adorned by Russell Brand, it was not enough to prevent his past from catching up with him.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to nearly 11 years imprisonment and will have to serve at least seven years before he can be considered for parole.
Upon his release, Brand will no doubt emerge as another new man and with another grand plan to rise to fame once more.