Russell Brand is due to be sentenced today after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault, with the judge warning he faces "a significant custodial term". The development comes as a disturbing clip from 2006, in which Brand asks Vanessa Feltz about sleeping with her teenage daughter, has resurfaced online and been widely shared on social media.
In the footage from his former E4 show 1 Leicester Square, Brand asks Feltz: "Can I have it off with either you or your daughters? Vanessa, come on, some of them are adults. You've got two whole daughters and I can't even have one?"
Feltz recalls feeling 'horrified' and 'disgusted'
A visibly shocked Feltz responds: "Certainly not. When you have your own daughters, you'll know why I said that." Twenty years later, she has opened up about feeling "horrified" and "disgusted" that he had asked such a question.
Speaking on ITV's This Morning, Feltz said: "I'd never seen a presenter like him. I went to watch him do stand up that very night and we formed some kind of a friendship and you know I found him vastly entertaining."
She added: "But then I was a guest on one of his shows and he just kind of announced, in this unbelievably kind of dispassionate way as if it would have no effect on me at all, that he kind of liked to have sex with me and both my daughters."
Details of the 2006 encounter
Feltz noted that her younger daughter was 15 at the time, describing it as "a pretty revolting thing to say to anyone, especially a mum." She continued: "I couldn't pretend I thought that was funny. I didn't think it was funny. Plus, you could tell it wasn't really a joke. I realised then that there was something extremely chilling about him."
Speaking to LBC about the encounter, Feltz said: "I wasn't able to laugh it off. I didn't want to laugh it off. I didn't think it was at all fine. I was horrified. I was absolutely disgusted, in fact."
Conviction and court proceedings
Brand, now 51, preyed on women he encountered while becoming one of Britain's best-known stand-up comedians, a lauded TV and radio host, and a Hollywood movie star. His victims came to court to reveal how Brand had forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of them first meeting, using his fame to determinedly pursue a goal of sex with 5,000 women.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Brand, who once boasted he would not relent in his pursuit of sex before getting his "birthright orgasm", ignored pleas from women for him to stop. Six women gave evidence against Brand, while the former comedian, who was once married to Katy Perry, could not persuade any of his celebrity friends or former showbiz colleagues to give evidence in his defence.
On Thursday, a jury found Brand guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one allegation of attempted indecent assault. Brand will be sentenced later today.
