Samantha Armytage has opened up about her infamous 2009 TV interview with a “touchy-feely” Russell Brand.
The Seven presenter interviewed the British star for Weekend Sunrise while he was touring Australia at the height of his fame.
The interview was described at the time as an “infamous and intimate encounter” – and addressing it again this week, Armytage admitted it was “pretty full-on”.
“Obviously he was always rather outrageous in his persona,” she told The Daily Telegraph’s Confidential on Tuesday.
“But I do recall him being very touchy-feely and thinking it was pretty full-on given I didn’t know him.”
During the segment, Brand was seen seductively biting into a banana and flirting with the Seven presenter, telling her she was “gorgeous”.
“If you was on my telly when I was a teenage boy, it would mess me up. I think you are gorgeous,” he told her.
When a blushing Armytage responded that he was “kind”, he quickly replied: “It ain’t kind … it’s just a bit rude.”
Clips have also resurfaced of other high-profile Aussie presenters, including TV and radio host Fifi Box and Nine journalist Liz Hayes, in similar interviews with Brand, although Armytage is the first to publicly comment in the wake of allegations of misconduct, rape and sexual assault being levelled at him.
Brand has denied all allegations made against him.
According to a joint investigation published by The Sunday Times of London, the Times of London and Channel 4 Dispatches, Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women at the height of his fame between 2006 and 2013.
One woman alleges Brand raped her against a wall in his Los Angeles home, while another claims she was assaulted when he was 31 and she was only 16 and still at school.
She has accused Brand, who she says referred to her as “The Child”, of being emotionally abusive and controlling during their three-month relationship.
Two other women accused the star of sexual assault, while one of them also alleges he was physically and emotionally abusive.
He posted a video late on Friday night local time, in which he vehemently refuted what he described as “very serious criminal allegations” made against him.
In the nearly three-minute monologue, which was shared with his 11 million X followers and 6.5 million YouTube subscribers, Brand insisted any encounters during his “promiscuous” period were “consensual” and that he was being targeted in a “co-ordinated media attack”.
“Is there another agenda at play? Particularly when we’ve seen co-ordinated media attacks before, like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of, and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language,” Brand said.
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A growing list of major organisations are now distancing themselves from Brand amid the allegations.
According to The Sun, episodes of UK reality series’ Big Brother, The Great British Bake Off and comedy quiz QI have been removed from streaming services, years after first being added.
Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police has also announced that it received a report of alleged assault made against Brand, but it appears to be separate to the four claimed victims aired in the media.
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