From loud mouth… to political pundit: How Russell Brand went on Newsnight and Question Time and guest-edited the New Statesman after reinventing himself as a social justice warrior (but not everyone took him seriously)

When Russell Brand first burst onto the scene, he was known for being a serial womanizer and his battles with addiction.

The Sun named him “Shagger of the Year” three times in a row from 2006 to 2008 and he is said to have slept with more than 1,000 women. The comedian has openly bragged about his promiscuous past, once claiming to have slept with nine women in one evening.

After a stint in rehab, the addict and addict began trying to change the course of his reputation.

In recent years, he has become a successful online influencer and wellness guru and has over six million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

After years of drugs, partying, sex and rehab, Brand settled down and married his wife Laura Gallacher in 2017 before the couple welcomed two young daughters – Mabel and Penny – and are now expecting a third child.

Brand is photographed in July 2010 wearing his underwear while filming scenes for the remake of the 1981 film Arthur.

Known for his interest in spirituality, Brand last month announced his next major wellness event – ​​Community 2024 – aimed at fostering personal awakening and social change.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2017, Brand himself said he was “less crazy now”.

“I was a person in need,” he said. “I mean, this condition still persists, but I manage it better now, I think.”

In 2014, he posted a photo of himself holding a t-shirt emblazoned with the black capital letters “No More Page 3” while supporting the campaign.

He thanked his then-girlfriend Jemima Khan for “the wake-up call” and said “my sexist teenager is killed”.

Not all commenters were convinced by her new image, with Dr Brooke Magnanti – research scientist and former prostitute – shining the spotlight on her tweet declaring that “the love of a good woman” had made her change her ways .

She wrote in The telegraph: ‘What does it mean ? That all the other women – of which, by his own admission, there were many, including his ex-wife Katy Perry – weren’t good enough to convince Brand that sexism wasn’t present?

Today ex Rhian Sugden broke her silence on the 48-year-old’s support for the campaign after Saturdays explosive documentary on Dispatches.

Glamor model Rhian, 37, who insisted nothing untoward happened when they were together, however claimed Russell joined the No More Page 3 campaign in 2014 after failing to hook up a path through the list of models.

Ex Rhian Sugden claimed Brand joined the No More Page 3 campaign in 2014 after failing to make her way through its roster of models.

When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, ex-Lothario Brand described it as a “real wake-up call.”

In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine in January 2019, he said he had no regrets about his past.

He praised the #MeToo movement, adding: “No (I don’t regret my past). I just think (the movement) is a really positive change. It’s a sign of a real awakening.

And speaking about his own changing attitude towards sex and marriage, he added: “When I think ‘oh, this person is attractive’, the next thought is ‘yeah, but what if you ever did something , you realize that it would destroy your whole life”. .There is this voice in my head now.

In 2012, he appeared on Newsnight to discuss the way drug addicts are treated and got into a heated debate with Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, where the latter accused Brand of being “aggressive towards me in the past.”

Hitchens asked: “Why is a comedian given a show on the BBC to promote a drugs policy? Why is the drug debate so degraded that we are reduced to this sort of thing?

A year later, The New Statesman announced that Brand was guest-editing a special issue on the theme of the Revolution.

Brand appeared on Newsnight in 2012, where he took on Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens in a heated debate over the way drug addicts are treated.

He appeared as a question time speaker in 2014 and made headlines again for a heated row with Nigel Farage. He also had to apologize for being “sexist” to Penny Mordaunt.

The edition focused on climate change, gay rights, transcendental meditation and the fight against drug addiction and included contributions from Gary Lineker, Noel Gallagher and Alec Baldwin.

In 2014, the comic was on the Question Time panel alongside then UKIP leader Nigel Farage, where he clashed with Brand over immigration and whether Britain was “overpopulated”.

The comic called Farage a “bookstore Enoch Powell”, while one member of the public called on him to stand for election to Parliament.

Brand was forced to apologize for “sexism” after telling colleague Penny Mordaunt, who praised firefighters: “Pay their pensions, then love.”

As recently as June, he appeared in Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett’s CEO Diary in an hour and 40 minute interview titled: “The Russell Brand FINALLY Opens Up: escape a life of anxiety, addiction and find love!

In his opening speech, the entrepreneur said: “Russell Brand is one of the most fascinating people I have ever spoken to. A former self-destructor, heroin addict, admitted narcissist, bulimic who craved fame and attention.

“And he was so addicted to sex that he slept with five women a day.” That married Katy Perry three months after meeting her, then divorced via text message.

“Have you ever had that subtle feeling that the way you’re living isn’t quite right? That something is out of balance somewhere?

“That you are not living your life the way that human somewhere inside you should live his life. The Russell brand in front of me can understand. And he found a new remedy for this feeling.

The interview has been viewed over 2.5 million times and received over 7,000 comments.