Russell Brand admitted that he once slept with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30.
“The plain fact of it’s that in Europe and in the UK, where I’m from, the age of consent is 16. And I did sleep with a 16-year-old after I was 30,” Brand, 50, told The Megyn Kelly Show in an episode posted on Wednesday, April 22. “Once I was 30, I used to be a really different person. I used to be so much younger, and I used to be an immature 30-year-old.”
As Brand referenced, the age of consent within the U.K. was 16 in 2006 and stays so to at the present time.
The Rock of Ages actor promoted his recent book The best way to Grow to be a Christian in 7 Days — about his religious conversion — during his discussion with host Megyn Kelly while also delving into the myriad of misconduct allegations levied against him.
A lady referred to only as “Alice” told The Sunday Times in September 2023 that Brand was emotionally and sexually abusive to her in 2006, when she was 16 and he was 30.
Alice allegedly reported the behavior to Brand’s agent, who advised her to contact the comedian’s attorney. Per Alice, Brand’s lawyer denied the allegation and took no motion.
Brand acknowledged on The Megyn Kelly Show that, while his relationship with a 16 yr old in 2006 was not illegal under U.K. law, there have been significant moral implications.
“There may be a powerful power differential, as there’s if you’re a famous man that has the power to draw women that I did at the moment, I feel involves exploitation,” he said. “I feel it’s exploitative. I recognize that my sexual conduct previously was selfish, and I didn’t apply enough consideration — barely any, I suppose really — to how that sex was affecting other people.”
Brand took issue with the perception of his behavior on the time, claiming he was seeing “powerful skilled women” in addition to “waitresses and strippers and fans and other people.”
“What fame gave me and what my addiction fueled was the chance for countless consent, which led me to be a hedonist and a idiot, and an exploiter of ladies, and that’s incorrect. And that’s something that should be redeemed and addressed and atoned for,” he argued. “What I’m obviously not only querying, but violently or aggressively or assertively opposing, is the concept this can be a judicial criminal matter where consent was overridden.”
Russell Brand in February 2026. Getty Images/Adrian DENNIS / AFP
Brand insisted that “consent was directed” in every sexual encounter he has ever had.
“That’s what being famous and being, if I’ll say, forgive me, charismatic affords you is the power to direct consent. That doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s actually not right,” he declared. “It’s incorrect. It’s a sin. It’s an expression of selfishness and false idolatry.”
The comedian added, “We’re not the ultimate say on what’s right and incorrect. God is the ultimate say.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Brand’s representatives for comment.
Brand has faced sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse allegations from multiple women who say the misconduct occurred between 1999 and 2013. Several of their accusations were first explored in Channel 4’s 2023 documentary Russell Brand: In Plain Sight.
In April 2025, Brand was charged within the U.K. with rape, sexual assault and indecent assault based on allegations from 4 different women between 1999 and 2005 while two more counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault were later added. (Brand has pleaded not guilty.)
“We’ve today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a variety of sexual offenses,” the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on April 4, 2025. “We rigorously reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the printed of a Channel 4, Sunday Times and Times investigation in September 2023. We’ve concluded that Russell Brand ought to be charged with offenses including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”
Russell Brand is speaking out for the primary time after being accused of sexual assault by multiple women earlier this week. “Hello there, you awakening wonders,” Brand, 48, said in a Friday, September 22, YouTube video. “Obviously it’s been a rare and distressing week and I thanks very much to your support and for […]
The CPS clarified, “These relate to reported non-recent offences between 1999 and 2005, involving 4 women.”
Brand has previously suggested that he was targeted as a part of a media conspiracy as a result of his shift towards right-wing politics.
“I don’t mind [the media] using my books and my stand-up to discuss my promiscuous, consensual conduct previously. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations,” Brand said in a YouTube video in April 2025. “Also, it’s price mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets try to construct, apparently, in what seems to me to be a coordinated attack.”
His trial is predicted to start in October at Southwark Crown Court in London.
If you will have experienced sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support.