Emily Maitlis 'charmed' by Russell Brand in previous interview amid allegations
Emily Maitlis is the latest celebrity to provide an account of her time with Russell Brand in the wake of allegations of rape and sexual assault.
The 53-year-old documentary filmmaker recalls the time that she met the comedian in 2017 when he was promoting his book Recovery, which focused on addiction. Russell, 48, is currently at the centre of an investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches over allegations of rape, sexual assault and emotionally abusive behaviour – claims which he adamantly denies. The hour-and-a-half documentary is based on Russell's treatment of women between the years of 2006 and 2013.
While Russell is currently being vilified over the allegations, Emily found him charming, despite the fact that she was "preparing to loathe him."
News presenter Emily Maitlis interviewed Russell Brand for his book Recovery (Russell Brand/Twitter)A new episode of The News Agents podcast shows Emily being interviewed over her chat with the once self-confessed womaniser. Speaking about her thoughts ahead of Russell's arrival, she said: "I interviewed him when he brought out his book about addiction and it was called Recovery. And to be fair, I went to that interview preparing to loathe him. And he kept me waiting. I'm a really rigorous timekeeper. I remember him being late, I remember him having his own make-up room and sort of thinking 'Oh my God what a narcissist', I hate people who do the power play thing, you know for making an interviewer wait for no sort of apparent reason. And then in truth, he sort of walks into the room and he is mesmerising. He's funny, he's smart, he's linguistic. His language is magnetic and he's charismatic."
When asked if that meant that Russell charmed her, she replied: "He did to some extent. In the context of the interview, I'd be lying if I said there isn't something about him. We know that there's something about him because he sells out shows, he reinvents himself."
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Ahead of the allegations coming to light, Brand issued a YouTube video in which he said he "refuted" the claims and insisted all the relationships he had were "consensual". In the video, he said: "Now, this isn't the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because, in this story, I am the news. I've received two extremely disturbing letters or a letter and an email. One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.
"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. 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.
"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. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play."
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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