Laura Brand, the wife of Russell Brand, has been at the centre of media attention after publicly defending and standing beside her husband throughout his trial. She sobbed after the former comedian was found guilty of raping a fan in 2009 and sexually assaulting three other women over a five-year period during the peak of his career in the 2000s.
As Brand entered the dock for sentencing, he turned to his wife, Laura Gallacher, in the public gallery and mouthed: “It’ll be okay, I don’t know how, but it will.” Ms Gallacher said “oh God” as she saw Brand enter the dock, before telling him: “I love you.” Despite Brand heading to jail, Laura will stand by him and will be waiting for him to get out.
Laura's life before Russell Brand
Laura, 39, grew up with her sister Kirsty and brother Jamie on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey, which she has previously described as a “world of magic”. Their father, Bernard Gallacher, was a famous Scottish professional golfer and respected Ryder Cup captain. He became a major figure in British golf after leading Europe's team in 1991, 1993 and 1995. Their mother, Lesley Gallacher, was less of a public figure than their father and focused on raising them at home.
Laura was predominantly interested in art when she was young and joined art school when she was around 18 years old. After being diagnosed with dyslexia at 13, she explained in an interview with Happiful in 2022 that she had found concentrating in school difficult, but that she later grew in confidence and explored subjects other than art. Among the subjects she explored included Reiki, emotional wellbeing and physical relaxation. Prior to her publishing career she worked in hospitality through restaurant and nightclub management.
How did Laura and Russell Brand meet?
Laura was 19 years old when she first met 31-year-old comedian Brand at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2006. He had been performing his stand-up show Shame, which she had attended, and she introduced herself to him. Kirsty had arranged the tickets for the show, which Laura previously recalled as being “very explicit” but “extremely entertaining”.
“He obviously acknowledged my friend, who is very beautiful, and said to my friend, ‘Have you got a boyfriend,’” she told the court last month. “She said, ‘Yes, I do,’ and he looked at me and said, ‘Tell me you don’t have a boyfriend,’ and I said no.”
They began their relationship in February 2007 and, under questioning from the prosecution, said they didn't have full sexual intercourse until a while later as she had been inexperienced. She had just one sexual partner before Brand. Laura insisted that he had treated her “very caringly, totally at my own pace”. However, she ended their relationship over his promiscuity and told the court: “I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with him if he was sleeping with other people. I was invested, we both had told each other we loved each other but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous.”
Brand famously married Katy Perry on October 23 2010, but their relationship was short-lived as their divorce was finalised in July 2012.
Laura and Brand's reunion and move to US
Laura and Brand unexpectedly reunited in 2015 after they bumped into one another by a canal in east London. When they first reunited, it was reported that her older sister Kirsty had “begged her to end it”. Yet she previously recalled in an interview that he said he wanted a “quiet life and a family”. “It was exactly what I wanted,” she said. “So then it was about seeing if we could build a foundation to make that happen.”
The couple quickly became serious and welcomed their eldest daughter in November 2016. They wed on August 26 2017 near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, with Noel Gallagher and Jonathan Ross among the stars in attendance. The couple went on to have two more children together and lived in a thatched riverside cottage in Henley, Oxfordshire.
Speaking in an interview with The Sunday Times, Brand admitted that he had never spent more than 24 hours in charge of the children by himself. “Laura does all of it. I am dedicated to it, devoted to it, but I am still surprised when it’s like, ‘Oh my God, this is really f***ing hard.’”
After the allegations were first made in Channel 4's Dispatches documentary on Brand, Laura deleted her Instagram account and the family moved to Florida's Santa Rosa Beach. He was baptised in the River Thames in 2024 and Laura joined him in becoming a reborn Christian. The couple went on to launch a weekly podcast entitled Sunday Service With The Brands about their newfound faith.
