Vanessa Feltz has described as “pretty revolting” the sexual remarks Russell Brand made about her and her daughters during a 2006 chat show appearance. The broadcaster, 64, appeared on Brand’s show, where he asked, “Can I have it off with either you or your daughters?”
Feltz smiled awkwardly before responding, “No, you may not.” Brand continued, “Here’s a wacky suggestion,” to which Feltz replied, “All three at once? Absolutely not.” Brand then said, “Damn, she’s always one step ahead of me,” before adding, “Come on, some of them are adults.”
Exchange on the 2006 chat show
Feltz, who has two daughters, Allegra and Saskia, now in their thirties, repeated “no” during the exchange. Brand called her “selfish” and said, “None of them? Hold on, let’s go through it: you’ve got two whole daughters, and I can’t even have one?”
Feltz said, “When you have your own daughters, you’ll understand why I said that.” Brand countered, “Well, I won’t sleep with them; I’ve got some principles,” before saying “the boys are in a lot of trouble” and that he was “joking”.
Feltz’s reaction on This Morning and LBC
On This Morning on Friday, Feltz told host Dermot O’Leary: “I was quite friendly with him…. I was absolutely mesmerised by the stream of words, the charisma. I’d never seen a presenter anything like him.” She added: “He just announced, in this unbelievably dispassionate way, as if it would have no effect on me or that he didn’t care, that he would like to have sex with me and both my daughters. The younger one was 15 at the time. It was a pretty revolting thing to say to anyone, especially a mum.”
Feltz said she “couldn’t pretend she thought that was funny” and that it “didn’t seem to be a joke”. She added: “I realised then that there was something extremely chilling about him. Something very ruthless and a sort of a bit scary and intimidating.” On LBC, she said: “I wasn’t able to laugh it off. I didn’t want to laugh it off; I didn’t at all think it was funny. I was horrified. I was absolutely disgusted, in fact. Even with a baying audience roaring in the bear pit, I could not and would not pretend to think that what he said was funny.”
Brand, 51, was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court on November 5. He is currently incarcerated in Wandsworth Prison ahead of sentencing on Monday.
