The scene remains one of the most painful moments ever captured in a celebrity documentary. Just before Katy Perry walked on stage in São Paulo, Brazil, dressed in a playful outfit covered with rotating peppermint swirls, she received a message from Russell Brand informing her that their marriage was over.
In the 2012 film Part of Me, Perry is shown collapsed in a chair and crying. She later said she deliberately kept her head lowered so her false eyelashes would stay in place before she stepped in front of 40,000 roaring fans.
Perry’s 14-month marriage to Brand, who has since been convicted of sex offences, remains one of Hollywood’s most troubled celebrity unions. The couple married in October 2010 and separated on New Year’s Eve the following year.
A woman who met Brand through a sobriety programme and knew him during his relationship with Perry said: ‘Hollywood has no shortage of dysfunctional relationships, but even then, Katy and Russell’s marriage was regarded as unusually toxic. It ranks alongside the worst celebrity break-ups, including Brad and Angelina.’
Now that Perry is reportedly in advanced discussions with streaming services including Netflix and Hulu about a possible docuseries on her relationship with Brand—and is said to be considering a revealing memoir—some observers are asking why she has waited so long to tell her side of the story.
In a 2013 interview with Vogue, Perry admitted that she initially blamed herself for the collapse of the marriage. She then offered a cryptic explanation: ‘Then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day.’
The question now being asked is: what exactly is inside that safe?
The speculation intensified last week after it emerged that Brand—who was sentenced to ten years and six months for rape and sexual assault—is facing further allegations of sexual misconduct from at least six women in the UK and United States.
Katy Perry and Russell Brand pictured during Paris Fashion Week in October 2009. They had met earlier that year while he was filming the comedy Get Him To The Greek
Perry, who was ten years younger than Brand, came from a very different background. Her parents were Pentecostal ministers who later established their own evangelical church. She is pictured with them at the 2010 premiere of Get Him To The Greek
One alleged victim has accused Brand of trying to pull her into a toilet as recently as 2015, when he was in a relationship with Laura Gallacher, now his wife and the mother of his three children.
Police have confirmed that Perry was not questioned under oath or called as a witness during Brand’s trial. The offences for which he was prosecuted took place between 2004 and 2009, before Perry and Brand were married.
Should Brand face additional charges in Britain or Los Angeles, Perry could potentially be asked to give evidence against the man she once nicknamed ‘Rasputin’, a reference to the long-haired, sexually mysterious adviser to Russia’s last tsar.
The source from the sobriety group, who knew Brand when he met Perry on the set of Get Him To The Greek in June 2009, said: ‘You have to wonder why Katy has never told her story. They separated years ago.
‘She is a strong woman and has spoken extensively about supporting women’s rights. People in Hollywood have long wondered what she has in that safe—and whether it could have protected other women from becoming victims.’
There is no suggestion that Perry acted improperly. Some people who spoke last week believe she was in a coercive relationship and should herself be viewed as another person harmed by Brand’s behaviour. Even so, questions remain about what she may have known, and when she may have known it.
The source added: ‘Did someone approach her during the marriage and say he had assaulted them? Did she discover something on his phone? Why would she feel the need to put anything away for a rainy day? She is a wealthy woman. That is what makes it such a mystery.’
For many, an equally puzzling question is what Perry saw in the famously outspoken comedian. A person who worked on Get Him To The Greek, made during the height of Brand’s Hollywood success when he was reportedly earning around $5 million per film, said the relationship surprised those around them.
Brand had long been open about his sexual history. His father, Ron, reportedly arranged for sex workers to attend to him during a trip to the Far East when Brand was 17.
In 2000s Hollywood, an offensive joke circulated that Brand ‘would hit on anything with a pulse’—a remark that has aged particularly badly.
Although Brand said he had remained sober from cocaine and alcohol since 2002, he was frequently seen leaving clubs with glamorous blonde women. At awards ceremonies, he was known for moving between tables and flirting with female guests.
I recall an incident at the Golden Globes around the time he was filming Arthur, the unsuccessful remake of the Dudley Moore comedy. Brand reportedly flirted with the wife of a studio executive and was threatened with being removed from the room before talking his way out of the situation.
His conduct on film sets was also a source of concern. A crew member who worked on Arthur told the Mail on Sunday: ‘He behaved inappropriately almost constantly. His manager was warned that he needed to control Brand or risk a lawsuit. The manager’s response was: “That’s already happened.”’
A friend said: ‘Everyone knew Russell behaved badly, but nobody suspected he was a rapist. He flirted with every attractive woman, but he was also a famous, wealthy movie star with what Americans regarded as a charming English accent. We assumed that was why he attracted so much attention.’
By contrast, Perry—ten years Brand’s junior—appeared to come from an entirely different world. She was raised in Santa Barbara, the affluent coastal community north of Los Angeles, by two Pentecostal ministers who later founded their own church.
Perry has described growing up in a home where people ‘spoke in tongues’. She first pursued music as a gospel singer under her birth name, Katheryn Hudson, before moving into mainstream pop in 2008.
After the release of her breakthrough single I Kissed a Girl, I spoke to her mother, who criticised the song and described its subject matter as ‘wicked’.
The woman who knew Perry through Brand’s sobriety circle said: ‘Katy was unusual. Her religious upbringing was very different and there was an innocence about her. She seemed quirky, warm and extremely talented, but she was not consumed by sex in the way Russell appeared to be. We were stunned when they became a couple. We assumed it was simply a case of opposites attracting.’
Perry and Brand appear happy together at a charity gala in 2010. They married later that year, but their relationship lasted just 14 months and became known in Hollywood as one of the most troubled celebrity marriages
Brand is shown removing his wedding ring in a November 2011 video, one month before ending his marriage to Perry by text message
The couple married after a whirlwind romance at the Aman-i-Khas resort in Rajasthan’s Ranthambore tiger reserve in October 2010. The guest list now makes striking reading. It included David Walliams and P Diddy—one of whom has faced allegations of grooming girls as young as 15, which he denies, while the other has been convicted of sex offences—as well as Noel Gallagher, Rihanna and Jonathan Ross.
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By then, Brand had adopted a spiritual adviser, a yogi named Tej Kaur Khalsa, who worked from a fitness studio in a modest shopping centre at the end of my street in Los Angeles. Around the time of the wedding, I approached Tej, who was dressed in flowing white robes. She described Brand as a ‘wonderful spiritual man’ but declined to discuss him further, saying: ‘We have a special bond and I would never betray that. He’s like a child to me.’
Brand, meanwhile, described Tej as one of the most influential people in his life.
At the time, he attended at least two sobriety meetings each day—one at a venue called The Log Cabin on Robertson Boulevard and another in an upstairs room at a club near Sunset Boulevard.
Following their wedding, Brand and Perry lived in a 5,000-square-foot property in fashionable Los Feliz before purchasing Park Hill Estate, a lavish nine-bedroom, 17,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills.
Yet those around them often described the relationship as unusual.
At the 2010 Vanity Fair Oscars party, an ITV reporter asked Perry for her reaction to the evening’s award winners. Brand interrupted by holding up a badge reading ‘OBEY’, leaving Perry silent while he took control of the interview.
Not long after the wedding, Brand uploaded a photograph of Perry in bed without make-up, appearing bleary-eyed.
The sobriety-group source said: ‘Katy never appears in public without doing her make-up. She is highly professional and once told me she felt a responsibility to look a certain way because fans she loved might approach her for a photograph.
‘I can only imagine how upset she was when Russell posted an image of her in bed looking so unlike her public self.’
Perry said at the time: ‘He thought it was funny, but as you can imagine, I wasn’t impressed.’
Perry has also described how the balance of power changed during the couple’s brief marriage.
When they first met, Brand’s film career was flourishing. But Arthur failed at the box office and his behaviour had begun to concern Hollywood studios. One executive said: ‘This was long before #MeToo, but the industry has always been conscious of reputations. Brand became known as a problem.’
Brand and Perry attend a charity event in December 2011, the same month they filed for divorce
Soon after their wedding, Brand shared a photograph of his wife, Katy Perry, in bed without make-up. She later said: ‘He thought it was funny, but as you can imagine, I wasn’t impressed’
He remained a regular presence at parties attended by British expatriates in the Hollywood Hills, but his volume and vulgarity gradually became less amusing. ‘People started talking, as they always do. He was seen as a liability. The industry did not turn against him because of allegations that he had abused women; it turned against him because his films failed and he was viewed as unpredictable.’
Perry’s career, meanwhile, was reaching new heights. Her third album, Teenage Dream, released in 2010, produced five global number-one singles, including Firework and California Gurls, featuring Snoop Dogg. The record sold 12 million copies worldwide and topped charts in both the United States and Britain.
A member of the album team said: ‘It sent Katy into another stratosphere. A world tour was organised immediately, with a documentary planned alongside it.
‘I don’t remember Russell attending even one concert.
‘Katy wanted the marriage to succeed. We would sometimes have four days between shows, and she would fly back to Los Angeles to see him before returning to South America, Europe or wherever the tour had taken us. She was constantly jet-lagged and exhausted.’
Perry later said: ‘Often, strong men say they want an equal partner, but when they get one, they realise they cannot handle it. He struggled with me being in charge on tour. It was painful, and it felt very controlling.’
Another associate said Brand wanted to start a family, while Perry—who now has a six-year-old daughter, Daisy, with former fiancé Orlando Bloom—was not ready at that point.
‘Katy’s career was exploding and her records were going platinum. Russell’s career was moving in the opposite direction. It was not the right moment for her to have a child,’ the associate said.
Perry therefore continued with her world tour while Brand remained at home in Los Angeles.
He ended the marriage by text while she was preparing to perform in São Paulo. One person who was on the tour described it as ‘the cruelest thing I have ever seen’.
The couple had not signed a prenuptial agreement. A legal source said: ‘Brand might have been entitled to claim half of her tour income because she spent much of their marriage on the road. To his credit, he did not ask her for any money.’
Perry has said she never spoke to Brand again after receiving the message. She later entered a long-term relationship with Pirates of the Caribbean actor Orlando Bloom, whom she credited with teaching her to trust again, and is now dating former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Sources have claimed that Perry and Trudeau may already be secretly engaged and could marry next year. ‘They are a wonderful couple and he gives her complete support,’ one source said recently. ‘Katy has found her happy ending.’
In July, Perry made her view of Brand’s guilt clear.
During an appearance at the Blenheim Festival in Oxfordshire, she took part in an interactive exchange with the audience. When a fan asked how she would react if she encountered her former husband, Perry immediately replied: ‘I hope my ex isn’t here. He should be in jail.’
As for the evidence Perry may have kept in her safe, only time—and perhaps a future Netflix production—will reveal the answer.
