Australian television interviews featuring Russell Brand behaving inappropriately toward Fifi Box and flirting with Lara Worthington have resurfaced after his rape conviction.
Last week, a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court found the 51-year-old guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women between 2004 and 2009.
In 2010, Brand climbed onto Fifi Box’s lap during an interview and claimed he had made her pregnant. Box was working as an entertainment reporter at the time.
Two years later, he revisited the subject during an appearance on Sunrise, joking about her pregnancy. ‘Who put that there?’ he asked.
‘Did you have it artificially inseminated?’ he continued, before saying he hoped the pregnancy was ‘one of the reasons I came to this country was to finish you off’.
During another televised appearance in 2015, Brand also attempted to fuel a rumour that he was the father of Box’s baby.
Several interviews with two of Australia’s best-known female stars have resurfaced following Russell Brand’s rape conviction. In 2010, Brand climbed onto Fifi Box’s lap during an interview and claimed he had made her pregnant
The shocking interview was filled with sexual innuendo and was later uploaded to YouTube, but it was not broadcast because of its ‘rude and crude language’
Last week, a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court found him guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving four women between 2004 and 2009. He is pictured arriving at court with his wife, Laura Brand
One panellist jokingly asked Brand how ‘the mother of your child’ was doing, prompting Box to make clear that the rumour was untrue.
That same evening, Lara Worthington also became the focus of Brand’s attention.
While discussing paparazzi, he praised her ‘beautiful perfect nose and profile’. He also jokingly called her ‘racist’ after she offered him a bottle of fake tan.
All of the television appearances took place after the offences for which Brand was convicted.
Channel Seven and Sunrise promoted Box’s 2012 interview with Brand as a reunion between the comedian and his favourite interviewer.
After opening with questions about her pregnancy, Box pointed out the baby’s face in the scan and told Brand he could keep the image.
When he eventually congratulated her, she thanked him before redirecting the conversation to the purpose of his visit.
Lara Worthington was also subjected to Brand’s attention during a 2015 appearance on The Project
‘So I wanna talk comedy,’ she said.
They managed to discuss his warm-up performances in New Zealand before Brand shifted the conversation to her haircut and suggested he would like their necklaces to become tangled together.
Box explained that she wanted to appear more demure now that she was becoming a mother.
‘You’re not a mother now,’ Brand told her. When she replied that she nearly was, he added, ‘You’re an incubator.’
As the interview ended, Box asked whether they could finish as they usually did. Brand assured her he would be careful of the baby, then picked her up.
‘You weigh about six pounds more than usual,’ he said, before announcing, ‘I’m taking her home.’
‘I’m with child,’ Box reminded him.
Back in the studio, viewers were told that ‘Fifi Box was not harmed in the making of that interview’.
Brand, right, and Fifi Box, left, are pictured at the Sydney premiere of his film Arthur in 2011
The Daily Mail previously reported on the pair’s first Sunrise interview after it resurfaced in 2023. Filmed in 2010 to promote Brand’s movie Get Him to the Greek, the segment was uploaded to YouTube but never broadcast, according to the video’s caption.
Brand, who was engaged to singer Katy Perry at the time, began by asking Box what her porn name was.
He later suggested that she sit on his knee to see whether he could get her pregnant. When Box mentioned her mother, Brand invited her to join them as well.
Near the end of the interview, Brand said Box’s laugh made him imagine what she sounded like during an orgasm. He then asked whether she wanted him to come over to her.
‘No, it’s okay,’ Box replied. Brand nevertheless crossed over, sat astride her with his legs around her waist and kissed her cheek.
As Box fanned her face, she reminded Brand that he was engaged and said he was allowed to sit on other people’s laps.
When they met for a follow-up interview later in 2010, Box arrived with all her questions written down.
She said that a few prompts were normally enough when interviewing Clint Eastwood, but that she had barely been able to speak when she first met Brand.
Brand flirted with Box throughout their interviews
As Box described her preparation, Brand interrupted to ask whether she was wearing tights or stockings.
Box also said she was deliberately laughing less because of his earlier comment about her orgasm.
Comments have been disabled on the clip, which is titled ‘Russell Brand flirts OUTRAGEOUSLY after UNBROADCASTABLE interview’.
By the time Brand appeared on The Project in 2015, even Box was surprised when a joke about him fathering her child received a serious response.
Asked about her experience as a mother, Brand described her as ‘beautiful, exuberant and unstoppable’.
Box called him a ‘dear friend’, rejected the paternity rumour and attempted to steer the discussion toward his tour.
Later in the broadcast, Worthington explained that she and Brand had posed for a photograph beside the network logo before joining the panel.
Brand teased her about adopting a model pose, while Worthington recalled how loudly he had been speaking in her ear.
When co-host Waleed Aly checked on Worthington after Brand delivered a lengthy answer about his love life and the limits of language, she admitted that she could barely keep up. Brand told her she was ‘perfect’.
A discussion about dealing with photographers prompted Brand to explain to Worthington how much a ‘nip slip’ photograph could be worth.
He then commented on her appearance, suggesting that people might find it difficult to sympathise with someone they viewed as a ‘shimmering light of pure energy’.
Worthington eventually regained his attention with a bottle of self-tanner from her own range. Brand jokingly accused her of racism for offering it to an Englishman.
Brand is due to return to Southwark Crown Court on Monday in handcuffs to be sentenced for raping a 21-year-old woman at his home and three historic counts of sexual assault against other women.
He is believed to have been held in solitary confinement at Wandsworth Prison since being remanded in custody after jurors convicted him on Thursday, leaving his wife, Laura, bereft.
Fellow inmates at the south London prison are reportedly taunting Brand with football-style chants describing him as a nonce, a slang term for a sex offender. The chants have apparently left him ‘cowering in fear’.
