Russell Brand’s Wife Testified at His U.K. Rape Trial

Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing

Russell Brand’s wife, Laura Brand, testified as a character witness in her husband’s rape trial in London on Thursday.

Russell Brand met his wife in 2006, when she was 19 and he was 31. Laura testified to meeting him in September of that year, and explained they broke up in February 2007 due to his infidelity. “I was invested, we both had told each other we loved each other, but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous,” she said, per Sky News. She also asserted that all their sexual encounters were consensual, recalling Brand respecting her wish not to have penetrative sex early in their relationship.

A few years after he and Laura broke up, Brand married Katy Perry in 2010; they divorced the following year, and he and Laura reconnected in 2015. The two then dated for two years before marrying in 2017. They now share three children, who are 10, 8, and 3 years old.

When Brand’s defense lawyer Ian Winter KC asked Laura about their marriage, she described Brand as an “amazing husband” who’s “caring and kind” and “a wonderful father to our children.” When Winter tried to ask her about her “view as to the truth of the allegations,” the judge dismissed the line of questioning, reminding Winters that Laura was not “an expert witness.”

Brand is facing three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of attempted indecent assault against six women, involving incidents between 1999 and 2009. He has denied all allegations against him and described the encounters as consensual. Appearing on Megyn Kelly’s podcast in April, he attempted to defend himself by pointing out that Europe’s age of consent is 16 — and claiming he had “exploitative” but “consensual” sex with a 16-year-old when he was 30.

Russell Brand’s Wife Testified at His U.K. Rape Trial