This post contains mentions of rape, abuse, and sexual assault.
Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse in a report from The Sunday Times of London.
The report (via Variety) includes allegations from at least three alleged victims and was published in coordination with British TV network Channel 4, which is also airing a 90-minute installment of their Dispatches series on the investigation this evening.
According to the report, one alleged victim claims that Russell assaulted her when she was 16 while in an "emotionally and sexually abusive" relationship that lasted three months.
Another alleged victim claims that Russell raped her in his Los Angeles home in 2012; a third alleged victim claims that he sexually assaulted her the following year and threatened her with legal action if she ever spoke about the alleged incident publicly.
Shortly before the allegations were made public, Russell shared a video to social media titled "This is happening," where he denied the allegations ahead of time.
In the video, he refers to "very serious criminal" allegations against him regarding past "promiscuous" behavior, and says that he “absolutely refutes” the “litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks.”
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies," he stated. "And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous."
"Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent — and I’m being transparent about it now as well.”
