Jemima Goldsmith accuses Russell Brand of violence and abuse, Digi Mart USA News: Jemima Goldsmith, the former girlfriend of Russell Brand, has accused him of “violence, coercive control and abuse” while the two were together. Goldsmith, who dated the disgraced entertainer for roughly a year around 2014, alleged that she “had to call the police to have him removed from my house in 2014 during a violent incident” but chose not to press charges.
In a lengthy statement on social media, the 52-year-old said she was “in awe of the courageous women who came forward at Brand’s trial” and was “glad and relieved” he had “finally faced justice.” Brand, 51, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison earlier on Monday after being convicted of rape and sexual assault.
He was found guilty of raping a woman at his home in 2009, as well as three counts of sexual assault against three other women. The judge at the sentencing hearing told Brand that he harboured a “casual arrogant disregard to any woman’s right to say no to you,” while his fame meant he believed “you could act when you liked and how you liked.”
TV producer Goldsmith is also the former wife of former Pakistani prime minister and cricketer Imran Khan, the daughter of the late billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith and sister of former Conservative government minister Zac Goldsmith. The mother-of-two said she had chosen not to pursue legal recourse against Brand over the alleged violent incident in 2014 because she was “worried about the impact of the press attention on my then teenage children.”
She wrote on X on Monday evening: “Whilst my pain in relation to this pales in comparison to what the women have testified in court have suffered, this was a difficult period in my life which has had a lasting impact.”
Goldsmith said she had not seen or spoken to Brand since 2014, but claimed to have assisted the journalists who exposed the allegations against him and had been willing to testify to his “abusiveness” if they were sued.
In her statement, she also addressed reports of an injunction taken out by her and Brand in October 2015 that banned a woman, Szilvia Berki, from harassing them, including by making allegations of assault by Brand at Goldsmith’s home the prior year. Goldsmith said on Monday that Berki had visited her house for roughly 30 minutes on 7 June 2014 to give Brand a massage, which she said did not end up taking place once she arrived.
Goldsmith said that Berki later told police that Brand had pushed her in the back while she was leaving and that she had been attacked by Goldsmith’s dog. Goldsmith said she “did not see anything untoward” during the encounter.
She added that, after providing a statement and CCTV footage, police concluded that there was no case to answer.
Goldsmith accused Berki of then sending a series of “vicious antisemitic and threatening” messages and posting “wild and untrue allegations” about her on social media. She said she then agreed to a suggestion from Brand’s lawyer to seek an injunction to prevent harassment.
She claimed on Monday that recent media reporting of the injunction had opened her up to “vile hatred and abuse online.”
Sunday Times chief news correspondent Rosamund Urwin, who was involved in a media investigation into Brand in 2023, told the BBC that Goldsmith helped her “a lot.” “I have seen the abuse she’s been getting online and I did try to tell people that part of the story was much more complicated than they realise,” Urwin said.
“I wish people would remember women that come forward are brave people and that is what she has done tonight – she has spoken out with immense bravery about how Russell Brand treated her,” she added.
Brand’s sentencing hearing heard victim impact statements from the women he had been accused of assaulting. One said she was “upset and traumatised” for years after the incident, adding: “I didn’t have any respect for myself.
I was thinking I was damaged goods – scared of giving off signals that could be taken the wrong way.”
The woman he was found guilty of raping said the trauma was something she had to “carry every day.” A van believed to be carrying Brand was seen arriving at HMP Wandsworth in London on Monday after the sentencing hearing.
