Russell Brand, the comedian facing sexual harassment and misconduct allegations from numerous women, allegedly exposed himself to a woman and joked about it on BBC radio minutes later, according to BBC News. The woman, who worked in the same building as the BBC’s office in Los Angeles, said Brand verbally harassed her and took out his penis in a locked bathroom in 2008. Less than an hour later, Brand appeared on BBC radio with co-presenter Matt Morgan, who mentioned, “It’s been 25 minutes since he showed his willy to a lady.”
The woman, whom the BBC calls Olivia, says that on June 16, 2008, Brand and his team arrived at the offices to record The Russell Brand Show for Radio 2. Olivia, who worked at a media company in the same building, welcomed them into the office before heading to the bathroom for sinus medication. As she squatted to search the medicine cabinet, Brand entered the bathroom. She turned around to Brand’s crotch in her face. When Olivia stood up, he told her, “I’m gonna fuck you,” and took out his penis. She told the BBC he put his penis in his hand and “pretty much served it to me as you would be serving someone some food.”
Within the hour, Brand was on the air with Matt Morgan for The Russell Brand Show. During the segment, Brand joked about how he expected his Bedtime Stories co-star Lucy Lawless would be “a bit daft,” but he “respects her or something” because he wouldn’t be able to “drag her off into a cubicle to show her his ‘pubicles.’” Morgan asks how long it’s been since he’s done that before answering his own question: 25 minutes.
Morgan: It’s been 25 minutes since he showed his willy to a lady.
Brand: (Laughing) Very easy to judge! Very easy to judge!
Morgan: The receptionist…
Brand: (Laughing) Look…
Morgan: Receive this!
Olivia wasn’t the receptionist, but she did expect someone to contact her after the recording aired on June 21. But as was the case with Bill Cosby’s “Spanish Fly” routine, comedians sometimes take advantage of the fact that their audience thinks they’re only joking.
“I feel ashamed, but more so, I wonder had something been done, perhaps there would have been fewer women he would have done horrible things to, which we’re reading about in the papers now,” she told the BBC. “I thought to myself, Oh, that’s a bit strange; nobody has come to say sorry to me for his behavior. So I thought perhaps that particular audio—because it was so graphic—had been cut out, which is probably why I never pursued it.”
Brand resigned from the BBC in disgrace in 2008 after he and Jonathan Ross called then-78-year-old Andrew Sachs to tell him Brand had sex with his daughter. However, Olivia says she told BBC staff about the incident in 2019, and there was no follow-up.
“What allowed that output go out like that? What made the BBC think that was appropriate to go out like that? I just don’t understand why they didn’t investigate this much sooner,” she said. “And I suspect there’s far worse in all those episodes that I can’t even stomach to listen to.”