Russell Brand denies what he says are “very serious criminal” allegations against him relating to past “promiscuous” behaviour.
In a new video he shared on his social media on Friday, Brand, 48, said he “absolutely refutes” the claims and described them as “extremely outrageous and aggressive attacks”.
“I have received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a major media outlet, one from a newspaper, stating a litany of extremely outrageous and aggressive attacks,” he began in the video. “But amid this litany of stunning, rather baroque attacks, there are some very serious allegations that I absolutely deny.”
Although Brand did not name the TV company or newspaper, his video comes ahead of a new special investigative episode of the British current affairs show Dispatches broadcast on Saturday night.
Ahead of the show airing, multiple UK outlets including Evening Standard reported that Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy sparked speculation about the content of Saturday’s show after he has since deleted a post on Xu (formerly known as Twitter) in which he said: “Something’s happening,” including a screenshot of the show.
Channel 4 did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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As the video continued, Brand then addressed the timeline of the allegations and insisted that any relationships he had during his period of self-described “promiscuity” were “consensual.”
“These allegations refer to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in newspapers all the time, when I was in movies. And as I’ve written about at length in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.”
“Back then I was always transparent about it – almost too transparent. And now I’m transparent about it. And to see that this transparency metastasized into something criminal, I absolutely deny that,” added Brand.
The actor then went on to discuss how he felt his “voice” had not been approved by the mainstream media and speculated that there was a plan to control his voice.
“I don’t mind them using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual behavior in the past,” he continued with his response. “What I seriously dispute are these very, very, serious criminal charges.”
“Also, it’s worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct in what appears to be a coordinated attack,” Brand added.
“I don’t want to go into this any further, because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I’m under attack and obviously they’re working very closely together,” he said.
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The actor concluded: “Obviously we’re going to look into this matter because it’s very, very, serious. In the meantime, I want you to stay close, stay awake, but more importantly, if you can, stay free.”
Brand representatives did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional comment.
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Channel 4 aired a 90-minute special Dispatches investigative episode in its TV guide, which airs from 21:35 to 22:35 local time. The episode will be repeated on Sunday night on Channel 4 at 10.50pm local time. No other details about the show’s content have been revealed at this time.
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Source: HIS Education