Russell Brand compares ‘suffering’ to Christ in latest reinvention… but faces a rising backlash from furious disciples
RUSSELL Brand is attempting to ‘leave the past behind’ by getting baptised as a Christian after a tough year.
But the disgraced comic – who was accused of a series of sexual assaults in October last year – is still cashing in on fame with his 3.9m followers, known as “Awakened Wonders”, raking in up to £25,000 a week.
Now The Sun can reveal he has left his fans fuming after his sold-out Community Festival in Hay-on-Wye was mysteriously bumped for a year, without any word to ticket-holders.
Followers who shelled out up to £210 for the festival, a three-day meditation and yoga event due to take place in July, stumbled across the new date on the community website.
One fan raged: “We have had no information regarding 2024 delay or cancellation or how to receive a refund. Not okay with all other expenses included in this commitment.”
Another added: “I just went to the ticket site and the tickets have just been automatically moved to 2025. I guess that means it’s cancelled! So I just cancelled my hotel. Not sure if I missed an email but I got no comms!”
The bizarre move comes in the week that Brand revealed his bid to “die and be reborn” through his baptism and newfound love of Christianity.
In October last year, a Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 exposed allegations of sexual assaults during the height of Russell’s fame between 2006 and 2013, as part of an investigation with The Sunday Times and The Times.
Russell – who was a regular face on Channel 4 at the time – faced serious accusations from four different women, including rape and sexual assault.
One then-16-year-old girl alleged Russell assaulted her during a brief and allegedly “emotionally and sexually abusive” relationship, while another woman told The Times that he had raped her at his Los Angeles home in 2012 but she did not file a report with the police.
At least six more women have come forward with allegations of historical sex offences since and Russell has been questioned by the police twice.
However, the 48-year-old actor has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, and says his relationships were “always consensual”.
Angry fans
The former Hollywood actor has since been on a “spiritual” journey after retreating to his countryside Oxfordshire bolthole, where he lives with his wife Laura, 36, and children Mabel, seven, Peggy, five, and a son, who was born last year.
In 2023, he set up Community Festival with his wife Laura, which charged between £160 and £210 for a three-day meditation and yoga event.
Guests could also stay at a luxury campsite – if they coughed up as much as an extra £995 to sleep in a four-person tent.
The three-day event, in Hay-on-Wye, is registered at Brand’s closed down pub The Crown Inn, which he bought in December 2021 for £850,000, and promises to be about “personal awakening and social change.”
The website boasts: “Russell Brand and friends will be back for 3 days of camping, conversation on spirituality, wellness, healthy living and our environment.
“Limber up for yoga or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, enjoy musical performances, relax with meditation and massage from a range of holistic healers on site.”
Pictures from the event, attended by 5,000 people, show children and babies taking part in activities, a young boy rolling around in the mud, and festival goers – including Brand – plunging into ice baths.
We have had no information regarding 2024 delay or cancellation or how to receive a refund. Not okay
An angry ticketholder
Russell – who was once worth £15 million – is also seen leading a group in meditation and taking part in ritual dances led by guru Wim Hof.
The comedian donates all profits to the couple’s charity the Stay Free Foundation, of which his wife is a trustee, which helps addicts in recovery.
The festival was meant to be running again in July this year – and sold out of tickets almost immediately.
However, Russell’s fans have been left disappointed and angry, as it seems it’s been cancelled and moved to 2025 with no warning.
One follower has commented on Instagram: “Is the festival still going ahead? I’ve been paying in instalments and would be good to have some confirmation now?”
Some, who booked through secondary sites, did get an email with one adding: ” I paid via ticket sellers and got an email saying my tickets had been automatically changed to next year.
“But my sister and everyone who booked at last years festival didn’t get any notification which was why I wasn’t sure if it still going ahead or not. It’s bad they haven’t even put any updates on social media etc. Lots of people will have no idea it’s been cancelled!”
The Sun has reached out to the Community festival team for comment.
Born again
At the weekend, Russell took to social media to reveal he’s “taking the plunge” and going to be baptised.
“What’s been explained to me is, it’s an opportunity to die and be reborn. An opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ’s name,” he told his devout followers.
Referencing a verse from the Bible, Russell continued: “Like it says in Galatians: that you can live as an enlightened and awakened person.”
He went on to quote other non-Christian perspectives on baptism, including Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who said: “You are already dead, now live the rest of your life properly.”
He also quoted from Buddhist texts saying: “Put down the corpse.”
“All of these things seem so inviting and beautiful,” Russell added.
Continuing to defend his decision to be baptised, he continued: “I know a lot of people are so cynical about the increasing interest in Christianity and the return to God, but to me, it’s obvious.”
He adds that “as meaning deteriorates in the modern world” he is drawn to “this eerily familiar awakening and beckoning figure that we’ve all known all of our lives, within us and around us. And for me it’s very exciting.”
‘I need God or I cannot cope’
Russell has been speaking more and more about his interest in Christianity, following the sexual assault allegations made against him.
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star has been sober since 2002, after suffering with drug and alcohol addiction, and he’s claimed it’s Christianity that keeps him sober.
Russell also claimed his faith helps him keep away from the “sinful” path he was once on.
Last year, he told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “Like many desperate people, I need spirituality.
I didn’t have enough self-discipline to resist the allure of stardom…I fell face-first into the glitter
Russell Brand
“I need God, or I cannot cope in this world. I need to believe in the best in people.”
Drawing a line under his life as a sex and drug addict, he went on to say that earlier in his career he “didn’t have enough self-discipline to resist the allure of stardom” and he “fell face-first into the glitter”.
“I’m only just pulling myself out now,” he added.
He continued: “As much as I might enjoy the feeling of privilege and luxury … I remember what reality is.
“I remember that my wellness is contingent upon spiritual connection, upon certain values and principles, and they … involve sacrifice and self-scrutiny about my own conduct and behaviour, which often falls short, and I’m working on improving myself.”
Compared ‘suffering’ with Christ
In 2018, the actor said he believes the teachings of Christ “are more relevant now than they’ve ever been.”
He told Relevant magazine: “There’s a famous quote: ‘Every man who knocks on a brothel door, he’s looking for God,’
“Crack houses and these dens of suffering and illicit activity, they’re all people trying to feel good, trying to feel connected. People are trying to escape.
“People are trying to get out of their own heads. To me, this is a spiritual impetus.
“Humanity is (metaphorically) knocking on a brothel door, in that they are looking for fulfilment in things that will only leave them empty.”
At the end of last year, Russell revealed he was reading the Bible, as well as C.S. Lewis’ 1940 book The Problem of Pain.
In the latter, Lewis asks why a good God allows people to suffer and explores how human suffering fits within Christianity.
That same month, he was reading Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, because he desired a “personal relationship with God,” and has been regularly wearing a cross.
Explaining his reasoning, Russell said: “Christianity and in particular, the figure of Christ are, it seems to me, inevitably becoming more important as I become more familiar with suffering, purpose, self, and not self.”
£25,000 a week from fans
While the Christian aspect of Russell’s new life is a recent addition, he’s been becoming more “spiritual” for a while now – and making £25,000 a week off of his lifestyle.
Tanith Carey, Russell Brand’s first biographer, previously told us: “Brand may no longer be welcome on primetime TV, but even before his mainstream career was torn apart by the allegations of rape and sexual assault, last September, he was concentrating on getting a cult following on alternative social media channels where he had more control.
“Brand now has a solid and devoted social media following, many of whom aren’t bothered at all by the sexual allegations – and who see them as part of the establishment’s conspiracy to silence him.
“Brand’s income may have taken a hit but he still has enough of an online community to keep the money coming in.
“He is finding re-branding himself as a serious revolutionary and a spiritual guru can also be lucrative.”
‘Master of reinvention’
Russell also charges £47 a year for exclusive content on his Awakened Wonders Community, on the online platform Locals. If 100 people sign up every week, that would amount to £4,700.
The re-styling of himself as a spiritual guru resonates with fans of the comic, who previously toured a show called The Messiah Complex.
“Without an in-depth, in-person psychological diagnosis, it’s impossible to know for sure whether he really does have ‘a Messiah complex’ or he’s playing on this as part of his ‘guru’ comedy persona,” says Tanith.
“Brand certainly shows signs of grandiosity and has admitted himself in interviews he has narcissistic traits.
“But he is a master of reinvention. Part of his brand is as a recovered addict who wants to help others and live a spiritual life, full of yoga and meditation.
“This lifestyle also fits in this narrative about how big industries, like the food and pharmaceutical companies, are deliberately setting out to make people ill to make money out of them.
“Brand knows his followers – who he calls ‘his Awakened Wonders’ – are in the market for conspiracy theories so he had a ready-made response ready and waiting.
“If anything, I believe he will pride himself on building an off-grid, media empire – and showing it can be done – to cause the maximum disruption.”