A Second Look: Russell Brand on Faith, Fame, and Allegations Against Him

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Megyn Kelly (1:19)

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show in today's Sunday bonus episode. Today, we're starting a new series called A Second Look, where we bring you an interview from the archives that's particularly relevant this week and boy is today's. This is my two-hour sit-down with comedian, actor, author, and host, Russell Brand. He came on in April of this year, right here in the Red Studio. It was his first appearance on the show. We'd actually been talking with him and his team for a while, but we're finally able to make it work and have him here in America, just months before he was set to go on trial in the UK for alleged rape. That trial kicked off this week and is expected to run for the next several weeks. During our interview, he strongly denied the allegations against him and got very candid about his past life, fame, faith and much, much more. Enjoy and we'll see you Monday.

What a show we have for you today. Russell Brand is here, and this is gonna be unlike anything you've ever seen here on the MK Show. We first met several years ago on my set at NBC, where he came out and at the time, was full of energy and a huge star. And even back then, I remember said something like, you're far less polarizing than people tell me you are.

And we bonded immediately. He's of course a British comedian, he's an actor, he's a media personality.

And he knows a thing or two about being polarizing now himself, unfortunately. Rising to fame back in the 2000s as a standup comic and landing high profile roles in Hollywood films, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, not to mention the animated blockbusters, Despicable Me, Trolls and Minions. He appeared on TV shows, comedy programs, and landed on the front cover of The Rolling Stone. How about that? It's an iconic image of him.

And he was further catapulted into the headlines with his high profile marriage to pop star Katy Perry. Everyone wanted to know every detail about their lives. They were one of the it couples of the decade until the marriage ended a couple of years later in divorce. In recent years, he's reinvented himself as a host and a commentator amassing millions of followers and content focused on politics, media criticism, and what he describes as threats to free speech, particularly during the COVID pandemic where he was absolutely fearless, questioning government policies, big pharma and mainstream narratives in a way few were. And it was bold and it was noticed by the British government. Brand has also spoken openly about his personal turn towards spirituality and Christianity, saying that his faith has given him a sense of peace after years of struggling with various forms of addiction about which he is very open. But there have been some serious allegations against Russell, too, and he is set to go on trial in the UK later this year. We're going to get into that as well. Nothing's off the table today. As the investigations and public debate continue about him, he remains as outspoken as ever. And now he's out with a brand new book. It's called How to Become a Christian in Seven Days. May Take 50 Years of Sin and Serious Fuckups to Get Started is the subtitle, which is pretty spectacular. Great title. Russell Brand joins me live here in The Red Studio.

SPEAKER_4 (4:52)

Hey, it's Kelly Rippa. And if you don't know, I have a podcast where I get to say whatever I want. Hold on, let me get a shovel and a body bag. I envision doing a podcast with the conversations that happen in my dressing room, off camera, where people feel free to talk. No hair, no makeup, this is my kind of job.