Russell Brand's first girlfriend has spoken publicly about their six-year relationship and how it fell apart, revealing in a new Netflix documentary that there was "something dark" inside him by the end.
Amanda Alguero Alejos first met Brand in 1999 when he was her teacher at the Callan School of English. She was several months older than him and recalled women "circling" around him when they began dating.
A First Love That Began in a Pub
In the Netflix documentary Russell Brand: Open Secret, Amanda described their early days together. "I remember every Friday we used to go to a pub. He was different from other teachers. Very, very clever. And I thought, 'Mm, very handsome boy.' I asked him, 'Come to the toilet for kisses with me,'" she said.
"His eyes were open, like, 'What happened here? Who is this lady?' I fancy him so much. Slowly, slowly, we fell in love. It was my first love."
Drug Use and a Relationship Unraveling
The couple travelled to Bali and Paris together. Amanda claimed Brand led a "normal" lifestyle but would take recreational drugs, including smoking cannabis. She said: "He [was] always looking for something more. He was taking a lot of drugs. Cocaine and heroin."
Their relationship began to break apart as women would approach and scrawl their phone numbers on the comedian's hands while the couple were out on dates. Amanda said in the documentary: "We couldn't have intimacy together anymore." Brand then told her he had a sex addiction.
Testimony at Trial
Amanda remembered the man she fell in love with becoming a completely different person, explaining that there was "something dark" inside him. She was forced to end their relationship after six years together.
Amanda spoke at Brand's trial, where he was convicted of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, to say: "He was very loving, thoughtful and patient with me. We laughed a lot together; it was a beautiful relationship. I always felt truly cherished and loved." She said she and Brand never had sex without her consent, and remembers Brand writing her poetry.
