An ex-girlfriend of Russell Brand has accused him of “violence, coercive control and abuse” while the two were together.
Jemima Goldsmith, who dated the disgraced entertainer for roughly a year around 2014, alleged that she “had to call the police to have him removed from my house in 2014 during a violent incident” but chose not to press charges.
In a lengthy statement on social media, the 52-year-old said she was “in awe of the courageous women who came forward at Brand’s trial” and was “glad and relieved” he had “finally faced justice”.
Brand, 51, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison earlier on Monday after being convicted of rape and sexual assault.
He was found guilty of anally raping a woman at his home in 2009, as well as three counts of sexual assault against three other women.
The judge at the sentencing hearing told Brand that he harboured a “casual arrogant disregard to any woman’s right to say no to you”, while his fame meant he believed “you could act when you liked and how you liked”.
Goldsmith said she had chosen not to pursue legal recourse against Brand over the alleged violent incident in 2014 as she was “worried about the impact of the press attention on my then teenage children”.
She wrote on X on Monday evening: “Whilst my pain in relation to this pales in comparison to what the women have testified in court have suffered, this was a difficult period in my life which has had a lasting impact.”
Goldsmith said she had not seen nor spoken to Brand since 2014, but claimed to have assisted the journalists who exposed the allegations against him and had been willing to testify to his “abusiveness” were they sued.
In her statement, she also addressed reports of an injunction taken out by her and Brand in October 2015 that banned a woman, Szilvia Berki, from talking about an alleged assault by Brand at Goldsmith’s home the prior year.
Goldsmith said on Monday that Berki had visited her house for roughly 30 minutes on 7 June 2014 to give Brand a massage, which she said did not end up taking place once she arrived.
