Katherine Ryan breaks silence on Russell Brand sex assault allegations
Katherine Ryan has released her first podcast since allegations were made against fellow comedian Russell Brand following Channel 4 broadcasting a special Dispatches investigation over the weekend.
Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women in the Dispatches documentary, which aired on Saturday at 9pm. Not all four anonymous women in the programme accused Brand of rape. The incidents are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013. However, Brand shared a video statement on his YouTube channel before the programme, vehemently denying "criminal and very serious" allegations he said had been put to him by two media outlets, describing it as a "coordinated attack".
Katherine Ryan, who has previously discussed "unnamed predators" in the comedy industry, usually releases her podcast Telling Everyone Everything weekly. The 40-year-old Canadian comedian, who worked on one series of Roast Battle with Brand before he exited the Comedy Central show, has now released her first podcast since last Wednesday, titling it A Rainy Day.
Katherine Ryan and Russell Brand alongside Jimmy Carr on the first series of Roast Battle (Comedy Central)At around the 20 minute mark, after sharing tales from her week and what she's been up to with her family, Katherine tells listeners: "This is all you're going to get from my podcast, it is a very underproduced string of consciousness about what myself, my husband and I have been doing throughout the week.
"If you came here for anything else, I should put you out of your misery now and let you know that I have nothing else to say about anything... apart from, I guess, passing observation, when a woman says 'no I don't want to engage in that conversation and I have no comment on that story, no I won't be confirming or denying or participating about anything in the news right now', her consent is not valid."
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Katherine later went on to add: "Why is my consent totally unimportant when we are speaking a lot in the press right now speaking about the importance of consent? No is a full sentence, ladies, gentlemen - no!" The award-winning comedian went on to move on to her show's next segment and told listeners: "It's a lovely day in London and when we return, I will open your emails and we'll see your comments on last week's podcast." At no point during her podcast does Katherine mention Brand's name or the allegations made against him.
Amid the allegations against Brand, a clip of Katherine saying she confronted an unnamed male comedian, who she dubbed a "sexual predator" has resurfaced in recent days. Katherine made the claims during an interview with BBC documentary maker Louis Theroux in November 2022. She did not name the alleged predator.
Although Katherine never named the "unmentionable British personality" at the time for legal reasons, the mum-of-three claimed it was an "open secret" amongst people working in her industry. Katherine stressed that she was not a victim of sexual assault herself – saying it was "not my story to tell" – but believed accusations from sources she described as "very credible".
Katherine added that while she didn’t inform the person’s employers of their alleged behaviour, she told the man repeatedly "to his face" during filming for a TV show, but the clip was later cut from the recording. However, it is not clear who the celebrity is and Katherine did not disclose their identity during her interview with Louis.
The allegations were made about Brand, 48, during Channel 4's explosive Dispatches documentary, which stemmed from a joint investigation with The Times and Sunday Times. Prior to the broadcast on Saturday, September 19, Brand took to YouTube claiming there were "serious allegations" made against him, which he "absolutely refutes" and strongly denies.
Following the broadcast, remaining tour dates were postponed and a fifth woman claimed to have been sexually assaulted by the comedian. Brand's content on Channel 4 has been removed by the broadcaster following the allegations being made public on Saturday and the BBC has confirmed that they are looking into allegations of misconduct by Brand during his time working for the corporation as a matter of urgency.
The Metropolitan Police on Monday released a new statement following the release of the Sunday Times story and Dispatches programme, stating they have now received a report of a sexual assault, which is alleged to have happened in London 20 years ago. Officers confirmed they were in contact with the woman.
In a short statement, the force said: “On Sunday, September 17, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003. Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support. We first spoke with The Sunday Times on Saturday September 16 and have since made further approaches to The Sunday Times and Channel 4 to ensure that anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sexual offence is aware of how to report this to the police.”
On Tuesday, YouTube suspended the monetisation of Brand’s channel for "violating our Creator Responsibility policy". In a statement, YouTube said: "We have suspended monetisation on Russell Brand’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy. If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community."]
Speaking to his social media followers via a video also shared on YouTube ahead of Dispatches airing on Saturday, Brand said: "I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter, and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like, my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.
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"These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well, and to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question, is there another agenda at play?"
* If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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