When he was married to Katy Perry in 2011, I thought that Russell Brand was kind of a New Age kook–a little weird, but more or less harmless. But over the last several years he’s adopted a lot of anti-vax and COVID denialism talking points on his YouTube channel, as well as pro-Russian conspiracy theories, and I’m not linking to them on principle but all of that stuff is right there on YouTube. He recently interviewed Tucker Carlson on YouTube as well, so you know if he’s giving someone like that a platform…he’s bad news. I know that Katy Perry isn’t without her faults. She supported Rick Caruso, the Republican billionaire who spent $104 million (some of which was his own money, I gather) to run for mayor of Los Angeles and still lost to Karen Bass. She also performed at the coronation which isn’t great either. But her ex-husband has crossed the divide from “distasteful” to “demented.”
With that preamble out of the way, Russell has recently said words on Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge about his marriage to Katy. He called their 14-month long marriage chaotic because of all the public attention and said the time with her was “disconnected”.
Russell Brand is reflecting on the “chaotic” time in his life when he was married to the “amazing” Katy Perry.
On Sunday’s episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge, the actor and comedian, 48, opened up about life in the public eye during the time he spent married to the “Firework” singer, 38.
After Brand recalled how he “didn’t really start making a proper living” as an actor until he was about 30 years old, Bear Grylls asked if that was around the time he was married to Perry.
“You had to live through so much that publicly,” Grylls, 49, noted of Brand’s marriage to the American Idol judge.
“That was when I was sort of most in the public eye and working in America,” Brand said, adding that “some aspects of [that time] were amazing.”
“She’s an amazing person,” the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star said of his ex. “It was kind of incredible to live for a moment in that eye of the cyclone type aspect of fame.”
“Aside from my sort of feelings of affection for Katy, it’s a time that I remember has been a little bit chaotic and a bit for me… a little disconnected,” he shared.
To read between the lines here, I honestly think Russell may have felt emasculated by Katy’s fame and that’s why he felt “disconnected” from her. 2011 was shortly after Katy’s album Teenage Dream came out, which was a huge hit. Katy was becoming a huge star, covering magazines, going on world tours, etc. Russell did okay but he never became the household name that Katy did. He broke up with Katy via text message on New Years Eve 2011, which is so cowardly, and then she got entangled with John Mayer (like who didn’t in those days). I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fan of Katy anymore–I was back in those days–but I’m glad she didn’t end up with him. I’m sure it was a “chaotic” time. But I think Russell has shown himself to be a chaotic person, and not in a benign, I-sometimes-forget-to-wear-shoes way, but in a dark way.
photos credit: Max Powell, PacificCoastNews.com / Avalon, Dennis Van Tine / Avalon, Getty
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