Russell Brand: I Couldn't Get Anyone to Testify for Me

Russell Brand told a London jury on Wednesday that allegations of rape and sexual assault have been "devastating" for him, saying friends and colleagues abandoned him after a 2023 documentary aired. Taking the stand in his own defense at Southwark Crown Court, the 51-year-old entertainer said he has been unable to persuade anyone from his circle to testify for him, per the BBC. Brand also claimed that a children's hospital barred him from staying with his son, who was having open-heart surgery, after all of the coverage.

"My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations," he said, per the AP. Brand faces three rape charges, three sexual-assault charges, and one attempted indecent assault count involving six women between 1999 and 2009, when he would've been between the ages of 24 and 34, per the New York Times. Brand denies all of the charges. Asked whether consent mattered to him, he called it "fundamental, essential, necessary and indeed many ways more important that sex itself," then loudly answered "no" to each allegation read out in court, per the BBC. The trial is ongoing.