Brand pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one charge of rape in a U.K. court in February.

Russell Brand admits he slept with 16-year-old when he was 30, says his conduct was ‘exploitative’

Brand pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one charge of rape in a U.K. court in February.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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on April 22, 2026 8:42 p.m. ET

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Russell Brand leaving Southwark Crown Court in London in 2025. Credit:

Jack Taylor/Getty

- Russell Brand shared that he had a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30.

- "When you're a famous man that has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation. I think it is exploitative," Brand reflected on *The Megyn Kelly Show*.

- Brand is currently facing a number of allegations of sexual assault and rape in the U.K. He has denied all allegations.

Russell Brand is opening up about a past sexual encounter he would now describe as "exploitative."

The comic, who has been fighting multiple allegations of sexual assault and rape in U.K. courts since 2023, detailed the experience on Wednesday's episode of the *Megyn Kelly Show*.

"The plain fact of it is, in Europe and in the United Kingdom, where I'm from, the age of consent is 16. And I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30," he explained. "But when I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30 year old."

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Brand continued to elaborate on "consensual sex [with] a variety of people, when there is a strong power differential." The *Forgetting Sarah Marshall *star conceded that there was such a differential in the encounter in question.

"When you're a famous man that has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation. I think it is exploitative," he said. "I recognized that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish, and I did not apply enough consideration — barely any, I suppose, really — to how that sex was affecting other people."

* *has reached out to a representative for Brand for comment.

Russell Brand on his podcast in 2026.

Russell Brand/X

The 50-year-old English comedian rose to fame in the late 2000s due to memorable parts in films like *Forgetting Sarah Marshall* and *Get Him to the Greek*. He most recently lent his voice to the 2023 animated comedy *Under the Boardwalk*.

Brand has lately been embroiled in a number of lawsuits in his home country. He was accused of rape, sexual assaults, and emotional abuse by four women in 2023, following a joint investigation by *The U.K. Times*, *The Sunday Times*, and Channel 4's investigative series *Dispatches*. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2005. Just two months later, he was accused of sexually assaulting an actress on the set of the movie *Arthur*.

"I absolutely refute" the first raft of allegations, Brand stated on social media in the days following (per NBC News). He has consistently denied all the allegations made against him.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault in court in May 2025, but was charged with an additional count of both rape and sexual assault months later. Brand again pleaded not guilty to those charges in February.

"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. And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous," Brand said at the time. "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."

You can listen to Brand's full interview on *The Megyn Kelly Show *above.

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