Russell Brand on Sexual Assault Charges: 'I Was Exploitative'

0:00It's April 23rd. Welcome in. This is Entertainment and celebrity news today, where the headlines shine, powered by AI. Russell Brand, the 50-year-old comedian facing sexual assault charges in the UK, just opened up on the Megan Kelly show about a past hook-up. He admitted sleeping with a 16-year-old girl back when he was 30, stressing it was legal since the age of consent, there is 16. But he didn't sugarcoat it, owning up to the huge power imbalance as a famous guy chasing consensual encounters left and right. Brand called his old ways exploitative and selfish, saying he barely thought about how it affected those women. The charges go way back, starting from 1999, including rape and assault claims from multiple women up to 2005. He pleaded not guilty to all of them earlier this year and has a trial set for June. These days, Brands turned his life around, marking 23 years clean and sober last December, and he got baptized into Christianity last year. He shifted to YouTube Brands on politics and conspiracies, framing his past as something

1:03he wants to atone for. Meanwhile, as the court case heats up, Brands pushing for truth to come out, calling this his chance to heal old wounds and set the record straight.