YouTube said Tuesday that Russell Brand will no longer make money from the video streaming site after several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian-turned-influencer.
YouTube said monetization of Brand’s account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended “following serious allegations against the creator.”
“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.
The suspension means Brand won’t be able to earn money from the ads that run within and alongside YouTube videos, which have titles including “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”
Other channels associated with Brand’s main YouTube page include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.
Brand still has a presence on Rumble, a video site popular with some conservatives and far-right groups, where his channel has 1.4 million followers.
He also has 11.2 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and 3.8 million on Instagram.
Brand, 48, denies allegations of sexual assault made by four women in a Channel 4 television documentary and The Times and Sunday Times newspapers.
Russell Brand sexual assault allegations
Russell Brand was accused of raping, sexually assaulting and abusing four women over the course of seven years from 2006 to 2013.
- One woman, identified as “Nadia,” alleged the “Get Him to the Greek” star raped her against the wall of his Los Angeles home in 2012 and was treated at a rape crisis center the same day, according to medical records cited by the outlets.
- Another accuser who was 16 at the time, who is known only by the pseudonym “Alice”, alleged that the then-31-year-old called her “the child” and assaulted her during their “emotionally abusive and controlling” three-month relationship, according to the report.
- Allegations from Brand’s other accusers included a woman, identified as “Phoebe,” who claimed he sexually assaulted her at his property in West Hollywood after they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, according to the Times of London. Brand trapped her in a bedroom and chased her around before pinning her down and assaulting her.
- The star’s ex-girlfriend Jordan Martin made similar accusations in her self-published 2014 book “kNot: Entanglement with a Celebrity.” She claims he sexually assaulted her at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, England, after becoming angry that she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend in 2007.
- Pop star Dannii Minogue angrily labeled Russell Brand a “vile predator” as far back as 2006 — accusing him of creeping her out by perving over her “fabulous breasts” and refusing to “take no for an answer.”
Brand denied the allegations in a video on YouTube and X, formerly Twitter, alerting fans to “serious criminal” allegations that he said would be made against him.
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Branded shared. “The relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.”
While the investigation proceeds, YouTube has suspended Brand from making money on the video streaming site, his pub “Crown Inn” located in Pishill, Britain, has been temporarily shut down and BBC has formally launched a review into the comedian’s time at the network.
The accusers, who have not been named, include one who said she was sexually assaulted during a relationship with him when she was 16. Another woman says Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.
The four allegations date from between 2006 and 2013. London’s Metropolitan Police force said that since those claims were made public, it has received a report of a separate sexual assault dating from 2003.
Known for his unbridled and risqué standup routines, Brand was a major U.K. star in the early 2000s.
He hosted shows on radio and television, wrote memoirs charting his battles with drugs and alcohol, appeared in several Hollywood movies and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.
In recent years Brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media but has built up a large following online with videos mixing wellness and conspiracy theories.
His YouTube channel has featured COVID-19 conspiracy theories, vaccine misinformation and interviews with controversial broadcasters, including Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
He also has continued to tour as a comedian, performing to hundreds of people in a London venue on Saturday.
He had been due to perform on Tuesday in Windsor, west of London, but promoters said the rest of the tour was being postponed following the allegations.
Brand also has been dropped by his talent agency and a publisher since the allegations became public.
Ellie Tomsett, senior lecturer in media and communications at Birmingham City University, said it was too soon to tell whether the claims would end Brand’s comedy career.
“I think there’s definitely a market for ‘outsider’ comedians … or people who want to position themselves as some way or alternative to current understandings of gender equality,” she said.
“And so I think in the longer term, will it impact his career in the way that we may be expect it to? Possibly not.”