TV producer, who was in relationship with ex-comedian that reportedly ended in 2014, accuses him of ‘violence, coercive control and abuse’
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Russell Brand sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault
Jemima Goldsmith has said Russell Brand physically assaulted her and she accused him of “violence, coercive control and abuse”.
The 52-year-old TV producer said she has always been “strongly and unequivocally” on the side of Brand’s victims as she opened up about her own “painful” experience with her former partner in a social media post on Monday.
Shortly after Brand was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, Goldsmith posted on X: “I am in awe of the courageous women who came forward at Brand’s trial, told their stories, testified and ensured justice was done.
“I have had my own personal experience of his violence, coercive control and abuse. I had to call the police to have him removed from my house in 2014 during a violent incident. I chose not to press charges at the time and not to go public with this, as I was worried about the impact of the press attention on my then teenage children.
“I have neither seen nor spoken to Brand since that period in 2014. Whilst my pain in relation to this pales in comparison to what the women have testified in court have suffered, this was a difficult period in my life which has had a lasting impact.”
On Thursday, Brand was found guilty of raping a fan and sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2009. He was cleared of two further charges of rape and one of attempted indecent assault.
Goldsmith, known professionally as Jemima Khan, is reported to have been in a relationship with Brand for a year from around September 2013. On X, Goldsmith said she had assisted the journalists who had exposed Brand in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and in reports in the Times and Sunday Times in 2023.
“I also undertook to testify in court to his abusiveness, if the newspaper that published the victims’ accounts were ever to be sued,” she said.
Goldsmith made the comments in light of renewed press reporting about a harassment injunction that she and Brand had taken out against a woman named Szilvia Berki in 2014.
Goldsmith, who married former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan in 1995, said the online commentary and media reporting about the injunction had presented “an untrue narrative” and opened her up to “vile hatred and abuse online”.
Berki had made allegations against Brand to the police after she had been booked to give him a massage at Goldsmith’s home in June 2014. It is understood the police found there was no case to answer.
“I was present the whole time he was with her, and I did not see anything untoward, despite the fact that he was later found guilty of sexually assaulting other women and he later physically assaulted me. If I saw any man abuse any woman under any circumstances, I would do my utmost to stop them, without hesitation,” Goldsmith said in her statement.
Goldsmith alleged that a series of “untrue stories” appeared in the tabloid press and that Berki embarked on a campaign of “threatening abuse online and in emails”. The Guardian has not been able to reach Berki.
Brand and Goldsmith applied for a harassment injunction against Berki.
The injunction was granted by the high court judge and former leading counsel in the Leveson inquiry Mr Justice Jay. It was brought to light by the non-profit campaigning thinktank Tax Policy Associates, founded by the former tax lawyer Dan Neidle, after Brand’s conviction.
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This article was amended on 9 November 2026 to clarify the circumstances of the injunction.
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Source: www.theguardian.com
