The Metropolitan Police released footage of Brand's 2023 custody interview. Brand, 51, faces years in prison after being found guilty of raping a fan and sexually assaulting three women during his showbiz heyday.
The footage comes after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, in which five women accused Brand of rape, sexual assault, coercive behaviour and emotional abuse. In the interview, Brand, wearing a black jumper with a white star and his hair tied back, reads from a piece of paper.
Brand said he did not recognise the names of those making allegations but told police it was “entirely possible” that he had encountered them and that they had “engaged in consensual sexual activity or physical contact”. He suggested the women had subsequently “reimagined” those encounters, maintaining that any sexual activity had been consensual. He denied ever engaging in non-consensual sexual activity and said he had repeatedly spoken out about his previous “promiscuous life”.
In his statement, Brand said: “On the 16th of September, 2023, the defamatory and fictitious documentary was broadcast in conjunction with the publication of two national newspapers containing false anonymised allegations, which led to unprecedented media reporting. Subsequently, both the media and the police publicly invited additional allegations to be made, which has resulted in further encounters being invented or reimagined. At present, I do not recall the names of complainants or meeting them.”
Brand also referenced his history of kissing members of the public at press events, saying he had “shared kisses with hundreds of members of the public during press events and photos of many such kisses in front of people, in front of hundreds of people were available online”. He added that whenever he was in public, he was conscious that his actions could be captured on camera.
Separate footage shows Brand appearing to hold what looks like a Bible. The comedian publicly embraced Christianity and was baptised in the River Thames in 2024.