Russell Brand: Open Secret has just been released by Netflix in the wake of his rape and sexual assault convictions
A shocking new Russell Brand documentary has been released with a number of new revelations – as ex-girlfriends allege that he subjected women to abuse long before he was famous.
The 51-year-old comic was convicted of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others earlier this week. He was found not guilty of two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. He has been accused in court of abusing his celebrity status to prey on women. In Russell Brand: Open Secret a number of alleged victims and people who used to be close to Brand have told their stories and made claims.
It also charts his meteoric rise to international fame and his dramatic fall from grace, after he was jailed for 10 and a half years for rape and sexual assault. One victim tells the programme of an alleged attack: “I kept saying no, I said stop. I begged him, I literally begged him.”
‘I begged him to stop’
One anonymous girl, given the name Emily in the documentary, claims when she was attacked by him she “questioned herself” because they were together at the time.
Emily recalls: “I was in my late 20s when I met Russell. He was a few years younger than me. I didn’t know anything about him. He wasn’t famous at the time. I loved how his mind worked. I loved the creative side of his thinking. He was romantic and gentle.
“He never told me about any other woman he was dating. Our relationship had a different kind of dynamic, more tender. I was just quite happy to be in his presence.
“He definitely had that magnetic personality to draw you in and make you feel like you’re the most special person in the world, and that’s how he made me feel, until he didn’t.”
In allegations not heard in Brand’s recent court case, Emily alleges: “We had woken up in the morning, and I understood that he wanted to have sex. I said to him, ‘Please just get a condom, and he was being all playful, saying to me that he wants to feel close to me, and I said to him, ‘You can still feel close to me, but please, you have to use protection’, especially knowing his encounters with prostitutes and all the things he’d got up to.
“It stopped being playful, and then I thought, no, this guy is actually getting really serious. I kept saying no. I kept saying no. I said, ‘Stop, Russell! Stop! Please don’t! Please!’ I, I begged him. I tried to kick him off. I tried to draw my knees back to kick him in his belly, but he was too strong for me, and he just pinned my hands back behind my head, and he just forced himself into me.
“And when it happens, you just feel like, is this rape? Because I’m with this guy. I said no, but you question yourself. And then I just left his as quickly as I could, and I remember I did tell one of my friends.
“Back then, women felt shamed. You didn’t talk about it. I just felt completely violated, and unseen, and unheard. I was saying no, I kept saying no.”
Apology text after alleged rape
A second girl known as Nadia told the Times investigation into Brand how she was attacked by Brand in 2012 and pinned up against a wall before he allegedly raped her.
At 3.29am afterwards Brand sent Nadia a text message: “I’m sorry. That was crazy and selfish. I hope you can forgive me, I know that you’re a lovely person. X.” He tried phoning her at 3.51am, but the call went unanswered.
Nadia responded to him via text: “Do you know how scary you are when that glazed look comes over you? When a girl says no, it means no. Do I have to go and get myself tested?”
Brand says she does not need to get tested. Journalist Charlotte Wace tells the doc: “He had the opportunity to defend himself against that accusation, and instead he responded with an apology.”
Brushing teeth till they bled
Former girlfriend Jordan Martin breaks down in tears as she recalls her toxic behaviour. They got together in 2007 around the time he landed a Hollywood job on the 2008 movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
She said: “I’d given up on love, and Russell texted me. I thought he was funny. I wanted to hang out with him. He asked me to stay in his apartment and I was like, ‘Why not? A bit of fun’.”
She said it began normally in the UK but when she went out to join him during filming, he refused to sunbathe with her and accused her of flirting with other crew.
Referring to how things changed once they went to Hawaii for filming, she added: “In Hawaii, he didn’t feel comfortable with me sunbathing on the beach or even outside of the bungalow.
“He would say things like, ‘Oh, you’re dressing like an attention-seeking tart. He said ‘Oh, from now on, just wear black’.
“I just felt like I was in a constant state of confusion. His energy was so big that it kind of just made you smaller every time.
“He had a yoga session, and he had sex with a yoga teacher. I mean, told me he was like, ‘Yeah’. So I’m like ‘What am I doing?’.”
When she called another man to arrange to get some of her belongings back, Brand broke her phone afterwards. She also alleges he sexually assaulted her on another occasion when he was angry and had a pattern of controlling behaviour.
Jordan said: “He wanted me to taste anonymous. He didn’t want me to be familiar to him, and so he was asking me to brush my teeth, but it just was never enough. And so he’s standing over me, and I’m brushing, and I’m brushing, and then I’m seeing my teeth bleeding, and the association with only it got more intense.”
Speaking of an alleged assault, she added: “He asked me who I was on the phone to, and I I told him I just need to get my bag back from, and so he snatched my phone out my hand and like broke it apart into pieces.
“So I kind of snatched the phone back and went into like a separate room. I just was standing there just to have a moment, just to try and figure out, okay, what’s going on, you know.
“And he walked in, he didn’t say anything, he put his hand down the front of my jeans and he inserted a finger, and then walked away.
“I didn’t report it in any way. I didn’t share it with anybody. I look at myself back then, and I feel sorry for myself. Not in a bad or pitying way. I just feel like it wasn’t very fair, you know.”
Switched personalities after becoming famous
One of his first girlfriends Amanda Alguero Alejos, told how he changed when he began doing stand up comedy and had female fans.
Amanda said: “We fell in love, it was my first love. I was so nervous. We did everything together, we went to Paris, Bali, he used to write for me poetry. We talk about a big house and a big family.”
She spoke of his drug use increasing: “He used to take drugs like a recreation, smoking joints, but he always is looking for something more. He was taking a lot of drugs, cocaine and heroin.”
And things changed in their relationship, as his fame grew as a comic. She added: “He admitted that he had a sex addiction. I used to be In love with this guy and he’s totally different. I felt something dark he had inside and I left forever.”
As well as Brand’s former girlfriends, some of his comedy peers also speak out to say dark tales followed him around and became an open secret.
‘We should all be ashamed’
Comedians Nish Kumar and Harriet Kemsley also discuss how his bad behaviour became a well known fact on the comedy circuit. Nish said: “People were threatened that if they spoke about it, there would be legal action brought against them.”
Kumar also highlights how he spoke about his sexual conquests and ambitions. He added: “It does seem he got his material from his real life. When you look back at the material he was sort of bragging about the things he was doing which is obviously sort of bleak now.”
He later adds: “Russell didn’t do what he did because he was called talent. My personal belief is he would have done it anyway, but the problem is being called talent facilitated it and enabled it and certainly prolonged it in ways that I think we should all be ashamed about.”
The documentary also looks at how Brand was eventually brought to court, beginning with the Dispatches investigation for Channel 4 in September 2023, alongside The Times and Sunday Times, which led to the women coming forward to complain and ultimately the four convictions against Brand.
It includes “insight into Brand’s life” from The Times and The Sunday Times by chief media correspondent Rosamund Urwin and investigations correspondent Charlotte Wace.
Brand ‘wrestling’ with girl
One of Brand’s former best friends Mark Pinheiro also speaks to the documentary about how they became friends after meeting at a theatre course. At this time Brand was still hoping to become a comedian and wanted to be famous.
Mark helped him film a show reel to get a job at MTV which would be his first step towards fame.
“Russell could be be spontaneous and he had total freedom,” Mark said of his first job.
Mark then recalls of a time he shared a flat with Brand and he appeared to be forcing a girl to stay in his room after they were arguing.
Mark said: “I open the door to see Russell basically holding on to the girl with both his hands, gripping hold of her arm. She was wrestling herself away from him. As I switch the light on , he lets go.
“She said ‘Listen, you saw what happened, didn’t you?’. I said ‘Well if you want to report it, feel free and I will support you’. Whether she reported it, I don’t know.”
Over his two-decade career, he also cemented his status in the spotlight through his marriage to singer Katy Perry, and his subsequent appearances on TV, radio, stage, and podcasts.
Russell Brand: Open Secret will also examine how he eventually became a “political activist and YouTuber known for spouting conspiracy theories” in the early 2020s.
It will then follow his criminal trial at Southwark Crown Court, where he was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault against four victims. He is expected to serve two-thirds of his prison sentence before being released on licence, and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Director Olivia Isaacs said: “We wanted to look at it more widely, broadly, to try and get an understanding of Russell Brand, who he is, the worlds that he occupied and lived in. And to understand why the allegations didn’t come to light sooner and just what it took to get to the point, decades after the rumors start[ed].”
She is quick to credit earlier reporting by the Times and Channel 4 work with the survivors who came forward in 2023.
But she says the doc has further new distressing claims and concerns. “We quickly realized there’s much more out there, unfortunately. And there’s a pattern of behavior that we were uncovering,” she says, pointing out coercive control and emotional abuse in the testimony.
* Russell Brand: Open Secret is available to stream on Netflix.
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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