Russell Brand asked television presenter Vanessa Feltz whether he could have sex with her 15-year-old daughter during an uncomfortable appearance on his MTV chat show in 2006.
Brand, who has since been found guilty of rape and three sexual assaults, repeatedly questioned Ms Feltz about having sex with her or her two daughters during the programme, 1 Leicester Square.
At the time, Ms Feltz said the pair were “good pals” and initially appeared to treat the exchange as a joke. But her responses became increasingly serious as Brand continued to press her.
During the interview, Brand asked: “Can I have it off with either you or your daughters?”
Ms Feltz grimaced and replied: “No, you may not.” After briefly joining in with the exchange, she added: “I’ve got two daughters, the answer is no.”
Brand asked whether he could have sex with neither of them. When Ms Feltz replied, “Neither,” and told him to stop, he continued: “Hold on, you’ve two whole daughters and I can’t even have one. Selfish.”
Ms Feltz then told him: “When you have your own daughters, you’ll know why I said that.” Brand responded: “Well I won’t sleep with them.”
When Ms Feltz replied, “I’m not sure about that,” Brand said he was “only mucking about” and added: “I’m not actually going to sleep with my own kids. It’s only a joke. It’s only words.”
Vanessa Feltz described Russell Brand as “chilling”
The footage has been shared online following Brand’s conviction. Ms Feltz has since spoken about the encounter on several occasions, saying she had been unable to regard the comments as funny.
Speaking on television, she said she had initially found Brand “vastly entertaining” and had been “absolutely mesmerized by the stream of words” and his charisma.
But she said: “He just announced, in this unbelievably dispassionate way, that he would like to have sex with me and both my daughters. The younger one was 15 at the time.”
“I couldn’t pretend I thought that was funny. It didn’t seem to be a joke,” she added.
Ms Feltz said the exchange made her realise there was “something extremely chilling” about Brand, describing him as “very ruthless and a bit scary and intimidating”.
She also said: “What he really relished was power over women. He wanted to have sex with the ones who didn’t want to have sex with him, rather than the very many who did.”
In comments reported in 2024, Ms Feltz said she and Brand had “hit it off immediately”, but maintained that his remarks during the MTV appearance had been “revolting”.
