GUY ADAMS: How Russell Brand, once a darling of the Left adored by Ed Miliband, moved to America - then cosied up to Trump's MAGA allies

The time earlier helium was charged, Russell Brand utilized his podcast 'Stay Free' to sermon 2 of the much high-profile women connected his romanticist CV.

Wearing an unbuttoned leopard-skin shirt, with a medallion covering his chest, the 49-year-old begetter of 3 decided to heap praise connected some his ex-wife Katie Perry and her 'beloved' successor Laura.

Brand had a constituent to make: portion he's nowadays chopped from a precise antithetic governmental cloth to salient Hollywood wide Perry, helium doesn't judge her to beryllium a atrocious person.

'She's not weird oregon off-key, and wasn't progressive successful thing nefarious, arsenic acold arsenic I tin tell,' helium declared. 'I person thing but respect for her, adjacent though I evidently disagree with her governmental views.

'But I astir apt disagree with immoderate of my wife's, my beloved woman Laura's governmental views.

'So you ever disagree with people, don't you?'

That specified things adjacent request saying tells you everything astir the highly-polarised quality of the online satellite that Brand these days inhabits.

Once a darling of the Left, who guest-edited some the Guardian paper – wherever helium was a columnist – and the New Statesman, helium has, successful the past half-dozen years, executed a singular governmental and idiosyncratic volte face.

It has seen the celebrity, whose enactment was courted by past Labour person Ed Miliband, and who dutifully laid into the Tories connected the BBC's Question Time, clasp New Age practices specified arsenic yoga, on with Christianity, and, much recently, the MAGA principles of 1 Donald Trump.

His Rightwards displacement became evident during the pandemic, erstwhile helium built an assemblage of millions from societal media contented successful which helium expressed scepticism astir vaccines, and suggested Covid was deliberately engineered by pharmaceutical companies hoping to execute 'power, nett and control'.

Clips successful which helium shared pro-Putin talking points astir the Ukraine war, oregon suggested that Microsoft laminitis Bill Gates is astatine the centre of a concealed cabal, attracted millions of followers, who person been monetised via adverts for cryptocurrency, golden bullion and indebtedness advice.

After being booted disconnected YouTube for promoting vaccine misinformation, helium moved to Rumble, a video tract wherever subscribers wage for precedence entree to his content. And by past summer, helium was considered a sufficiently important 'influencer' to beryllium invited to be Trump rallies and the Republican National Convention successful Milwaukee.

Come February this twelvemonth it emerged that he'd relocated from Henley, wherever he'd been surviving with Laura and their young children, to sunny Florida, wherever he's precocious popped up astatine the spiritual location of the Trump movement, Mar-a-Lago.

It capped a bizarre travel for the erstwhile comedian, who was calved successful 1975 to a moving people mates successful the Essex municipality of Grays.

Brand's parents Ron and Barbara divided up erstwhile Brand was six and helium was mostly raised by his mother, who was diagnosed with crab aggregate times, a play elaborate successful his bestselling mid-2000s memoir My Booky Wook. At 16, helium started taking amphetamines, ecstasy and LSD. He also, successful his ain words, 'got precise obsessive astir enactment and women and pornography', marking the commencement of a widely-documented enactment addiction.

After playing Bugsy Malone successful a schoolhouse production, Brand went to the Italia Conti signifier schoolhouse astatine 16, but dropped retired aft a year.

It wasn't until his twenties that helium recovered occurrence arsenic a stand-up comedian, helping him container a relation arsenic a video writer for MTV.

The alleged incidents implicit which Brand has been charged subordinate to the aboriginal days of his career, successful which his burgeoning fame was occasionally hampered by high-profile controversies.

In 2001, MTV fired him for arriving astatine the studios dressed arsenic Osama Bin Laden the time aft the September 11 attacks.

The pursuing year, helium was dismissed from the XFM vigor presumption for speechmaking inappropriate worldly connected aerial connected a Sunday day show.

After 2 stints successful rehab, erstwhile to footwear drugs and the adjacent clip successful an effort to combat enactment addiction, helium started hosting E4's Big Brother spin-off show, aboriginal named Big Brother's Big Mouth.

And successful abbreviated bid helium was appearing connected mainstream stations specified arsenic BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4

My Booky Wook, which elaborate heroin addiction and galore sordid encounters, became a bestseller successful 2007, and the pursuing twelvemonth helium mislaid his slot connected a BBC Radio 2 amusement aft calling up Fawlty Towers histrion Andrew Sachs to boast astir having slept with his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

At the tallness of that controversy, helium moved to Hollywood, wherever helium landed roles successful a drawstring of large films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall other Kristen Bell, and Get Him To The Greek with Jonah Hill, some successful which helium plays the aforesaid anarchic British stone prima Aldous Snow. He besides starred successful the remake of the Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur, alongside Dame Helen Mirren.

His romance with Katy Perry, who he'd met astatine the MTV Video Music Awards successful September 2009, was of the whirlwind variety: Brand proposed extracurricular the Taj Mahal 2 months aft gathering her and they wed astatine a lavish ceremonial successful India successful October 2010.

However the narration faltered aft conscionable 14 months and helium returned to the UK, wherever helium was embraced by the chattering classes and, for a time, enjoyed a narration with socialite Jemima Goldsmith.

Brand's banal among British liberals peaked astatine the 2015 election, wherever helium endorsed Ed Miliband. That twelvemonth besides turned retired to beryllium the 1 successful which Brand met Laura, the sister of TV presenter Kirsty, who was a manner blogger keen connected meditating, crystals and making her ain quality products.

They joined successful 2017 and person children aged eight, six and 22 months. She remained by his broadside pursuing the broadcast of Channel 4's Dispatches documentary successful September 2023 and she has embraced his conversion to Christianity, which saw him baptised successful the River Thames by TV adventurer Bear Grylls past April.