Russell Brand was finally able to locate the allusive Bible verse he claims he read while appearing in court on rape and sexual assault charges.
“I’m still looking for that passage actually from my dire… from Piers Morgan. Wait for it… wait for it. Look, it was marked all along,” Brand, 50, said in a video shared via X on Sunday, April 26. “I was looking for it. I thought, ‘I should find the actual right passage — the exact one I was looking at when I was sat in the dark in the court.”
During a Friday, April 24, interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, host Piers Morgan asked the former comedian-turned-right-wing podcaster about the Bible he took to a February court hearing on charges of rape and sexual assault. When Brand was asked to name a verse that spoke to him during the proceedings — the Bible was confiscated when he was reading it in court — Brand fumbled for around 90 seconds, unable to locate the verse.
The incident went viral almost immediately, with many pointing to the moment as proof that Brand is using his newfound Christian faith as a smokescreen after he was accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women.
“I don’t know, maybe you’ve never been in the dark in a court accused of really heavy stuff,” Brand continued on Sunday. “In the UK, in a crown court you’re in a glass box. And I’m not sure if I found it right there in that moment but this was the verse I was looking at that day.”
Brand then went on to read Isiah 43:18-19 from his Bible, showing in the video parts of the passage that were underlined and clearly marked.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past,” he began. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Brand then went on to wonder out loud if any of his fans or followers have believed that what they “personally face will align and combine with something universal.”
“That our whole culture is a bit like a wasteland?” he continued. “I mean, the political scene — both globally and domestically, wherever you are, but also, you know, globally. And sort of personally… this isn’t a great time in the world. It’s like the Roaring ‘20s but again the Roaring ‘20s was between the wars.”
He added, “And maybe from a macro perspective or a holy perspective the world has always been caught in such tension and indeed that is exactly what this book and the prophecies of Isiah posit — that it’s not some localized thing.”
The former actor went on to talk about the belief that the world has been “captured and conquered by dark forces” — a belief he associated with a “conspiratorial perspective in a post-Epstein world,” referring to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking.
“All of that is iterated theologically, historically and scripturally,” Brand added. “Even though I find those words sort of difficult. So the answer is in here — it’s like access to the most divine truth that is already within you. It’s a kind of coming home.”
He concluded, “I’m sorry it took me so long to find it on Piers Morgan. I think it was the pressure of the circumstances.”
Brand is facing trial over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by six women. He has denied all of the charges, which date from 1999 to 2009.
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During a recent interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Brand again denied the allegations against him while admitting he had sex with a 16 year old when he was 30.
“The plain fact of it is that 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,” Brand said on the Wednesday, April 22, episode of The Megyn Kelly Show. “When I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
