Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner continue their spat over Russell Brand scandal off air as GB News star says he has been ‘overwhelmed’ with messages after he challenged his co-host for calling comedian a ‘hero’
- Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner clashed on air during Monday’s GB News show
- Turner described Brand as a ‘hero’ in the wake of rape and sexual assault claims
- Russell Brand LIVE: YouTube suspends comic from making money on channel
Andrew Pierce and Beverley Turner have continued their spat over the ongoing Russell Brand scandal after clashing in a furious on-air row yesterday.
The GB News star and Daily Mail columnist said that he has been ‘overwhelmed’ with messages of support after he challenged his co-host for calling the comedian a ‘hero’ in the wake of rape, sexual assault and abuse allegations.
On Saturday, The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches reported allegations that Brand had raped a woman in his LA home, attacked two others and groomed a 16-year-old girl between 2006 and 2013 at the height of his fame.
The Met Police said on Monday it had received a report of sexual assault against Brand which allegedly took place in London’s Soho district in 2003. The maverick actor and comic has now had his YouTube account suspended from making money.
Hours after Pierce branded Turner ‘shameful’ for defending Brand in a heated row live on air, the presenters continued their public spat. Others have also appeared to weigh in, including James Cracknell’s wife who took a thinly veiled swipe at the athlete’s GB News host-ex partner Turner.
Linking to an opinion piece she wrote on her reasons for defending Brand, Turner tweeted late last night: ‘I didn’t know that my co-host was going to do this today. I knew we’d be discussing this topic of #RussellBrand of course, but I wasn’t prepared for the personal onslaught which is why I look caught off-guard.’
But Pierce hit back this morning, posting: ‘I’m afraid this is just not true. @bevturner was told in explicit terms I would challenge on air her deeply offensive defence of #russellbrand who she describes as her ‘hero’. I’ve been overwhelmed with supportive messages for calling her out.’
Andrew Pierce and Beverley Turner have continued their spat over the ongoing Russell Brand scandal after clashing in a furious on-air row yesterday
Turner accused Pierce of carrying out a ‘personal onslaught’ but the Daily Mail columnist said he was ‘overwhelmed’ with messages of support for ‘calling her out’
Russell Brand pictured on Saturday evening leaving the Troubadour Wembley Park theatre in north-west London after performing a comedy set
Last night, Jordan Cracknell, who is James Cracknell’s new wife after his split from ex Beverley Turner in 2019, also took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the accusations against Brand – and described the women who have spoken as the ‘heroes’.
She posted: ‘My heart goes out to the brave women who came forward with their stories about Russell Brand.
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‘The allegations are stomach churning. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, and the misogynistic backlash is intense in these cases (one only has to look at Twitter). They are the heroes in all of this.’
During Monday’s GB News show, Pierce said that Turner was ‘behaving like an idiot’ as she continued to defend amid the fallout.
On Saturday following the reports, Ms Turner tweeted that Brand was being ‘attacked’ by ‘establishment media’ and encouraged him to keep going with his YouTube channel which often rails against these outlets, hailing him ‘a hero’.
But Pierce said on Monday: ‘That is shameful. You have dismissed in one tweet a four-year investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4, contemptuously, the mainstream media.’
He asked: ‘Don’t you think before you say he is a hero you should establish whether these very serious allegations are true?’
She replied: ‘Before I tweeted that, I had spoken to several sources close to Brand, close to The Times… I was confident that there is no smoking gun in this regard.
‘I remain confident having watched the Dispatches [episode].’
She added: ‘Of course everybody has the right to not be sexually assaulted.
The feud started after Beverley Turner described Russell Brand as a ‘hero’ following the reports of allegations made against Brand
Yesterday, James Cracknell’s wife Jordan (pictured together here) also took a thinly veiled swipe at his GB News host ex-partner Beverly Turner as she slammed the ‘misogynistic backlash’ towards Russell Brand’s accusers
Jordan Cracknell wrote on Instagram that her ‘heart goes out to the brave women who came forward’ as she described them as ‘the heroes in all of this’
Controversial comedian Brand at ‘The Today Show Concert Series’ TV programme pictured in June 2010
Russell Brand on Big Brother’s Little Brother on May 31, 2006. Brand presented Big Brother’s Big Mouth for three years before choosing not to return for the eighth series of the show
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‘Anybody who has been sexually assaulted, my heart goes out to them.
‘This happens every single day.’
Pierce countered that he did not feel there was ‘sympathy’ in her tweet for the four women who have raised these allegations adding that he was ‘shocked’ at her statement.
In the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Turner wrote: ‘You are being attacked @rustyrockets.
‘Establishment media don’t know what to do with the fact that you have 6million subscribers & generate autonomous, knowing and original content.
‘You are welcome on my @GBNEWS show anytime. We are mainstream media. But we are not Establishment media. There’s a difference.
‘Keep going. This proves you are winning. You’re a hero.’
In recent years Brand has seemingly become a prominent conspiracy theorist, using his YouTube channel with more than 6.6 million subscribers to cover topical news stories, including alleged misinformation surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and being an outspoken sceptic of vaccinations.
Reflecting on Brand’s platform, Turner said: ‘Let me tell you why he’s winning.
Screen grab taken from Channel 4 Dispatches trailer of Nadia – or an actress playing Nadia – speaking about her harrowing experience of allegedly being raped in LA by Brand
‘He’s winning because here’s a man who generates his own content, under his own steam, under his own expense.
‘He is a threat to all of these newspapers.’
A furious row also erupted over whether Brand’s wife’s sister Kirsty Gallacher deleted a message of support for the comedian after seeing the claims revealed in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
The night before, Brand had posted a two-minute video denying any criminal wrongdoing. TV star Gallacher shared the video with a large red heart but later deleted it after the documentary was released.
Pierce told viewers: ‘Interestingly his wife’s sister Kirsty Gallacher tweeted in support of him and then she saw the Dispatches programme.
But a furious Ms Turner interrupted, shouting: ‘No, that’s not true Andrew.’ She claimed that Pierce did not know why she took down the post, adding: ‘I’ll tell you why. Because people like you are saying that you cannot defend this man.’
She claimed that Ms Gallacher was frightened of speaking out and ‘only idiots like me’ have.
Pierce then interrupted: ‘Well there’s a true word to use there Bev because you are behaving like an idiot. You are behaving like an idiot.’
Turner added: ‘I will always stand by my principles. This man is innocent until proven guilty.’
After Brand was hit with accusations of rape and sexual assault, more women have come forward with allegations about how he treated them, it has emerged.
The comedian, actor and internet personality has told his 6.5 million subscribers that there are ‘very, very serious criminal allegations’ made against him which he ‘absolutely refutes’
The Times and Sunday Times claim ‘several women’ have come forward with undisclosed allegations about Brand’s behaviour during the early 2000s in wake of their joint investigation with Channel 4 which was published on Saturday.
The latest allegations – which the newspaper says have not been investigated, but will now be ‘rigorously checked’.
The BBC is now also facing ‘urgent questions’ after it was claimed that Brand, 48, used his company-provided car service to pick the girl up from school.
It comes as both BBC and Channel 4 have launched internal investigations into separate accusations of predatory behaviour by Brand towards staff and audience members during the time of his employment.
Channel 4 has since removed all programmes linked to Brand from its website, including episodes of The Great British Bake Off and Big Brother’s Big Mouth in which he featured, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Netflix has since been urged to remove his comedy special, titled Re:Birth, from its streaming catalogue.
And now, YouTube has topped Brand from being able to earn any money through his channel for ‘violating our Creator Responsibility policy’.
The 48-year-old produces around five videos a week for his 6.6million subscribers, earning him an estimated £1million a year.
Under the terms of his suspension he will still be allowed to post videos on the platform but will not receive any of the advertising revenue.
YouTube said in a statement: ‘If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.’
Brand has strenuously denied any wrongdoing and blamed the ‘mainstream media’ for the ‘litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks’.
Russell Brand’s comments in full:
Hello there you awakening wonders. Now this is not the usual type of video we make on this channel where we critique, attack and undermine the news in all its corruption because in this story I am the news.
I have received two extremely disturbing letters – or a letter and an email – one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff, like my community festival should be stopped and I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.
But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to a time when I was in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies, and as I’ve written about extensively in my books I was very, very promiscuous.
During that time of promiscuity the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and I am being transparent about it now as well.
And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question is there another agenda at play.
Particularly when we have seen coordinated media attacks before, like Joe Rogan where he dared to take a medicine the mainstream media didn’t approve of and we saw a spate of headlines of media outlets around the world using the same language.
I am aware that you guys in the comments have been for a while saying ‘watch out Russell, they’re coming for you,’ ‘you are getting too close to the truth’, ‘Russell Brand did not kill himself’.’
I know a year ago there was a spate of articles: Russell Brand is a conspiracy theorists; Russell Brand is right wing.
I am aware of newspapers making phone calls, sending letters to people I know. For ages and ages, it’s been clear to me or at least feels to be there’s a serious and consorted agenda to control these kinds of spaces and these kind of voices.
I need my voice along with your voice. I don’t mind them using my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous sexual conduct in the past. What I seriously refute are these very, very serious, criminal allegations.
Also its worth mentioning that there are witnesses whose evidence directly contradicts the narratives that these two mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently in what seems to be to me a coordinated attack.
Now, I don’t want to get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they are working very closely together.
We are obviously going to look into this matter because it is very, very serious.
In the meantime, I want you to stay close, stay awake but more importantly than any of that, if you can stay free.
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