A painfully awkward moment on live TV has left Russell Brand facing widespread ridicule after he struggled for more than 90 seconds to locate a Bible passage he claimed had been significant during a recent court appearance.
The 50-year-old, who is due to stand trial later this year over allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies, appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday, where the exchange quickly veered into uncomfortable territory.
Asked by Piers Morgan about why he brought a Bible into court earlier this year, Brand attempted to revisit the passage he had read at the time, but was unable to find it.
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“Can I go back to asking you a question about your Bible?” Morgan asked Brand.
“Is that the one you took into court? What was your thinking of taking it into court and you were seen looking at some passages – what were the relevant passages?”
“It was this from Isiah,” Brand replied, before flipping through the pages in silence.
What followed was more than a minute and a half of increasingly uncomfortable quiet, with Brand scanning the text as Morgan glanced toward the camera. After nearly two minutes, Brand conceded defeat.
“I can’t actually find the verse that I had that day but this is good enough. This is from Isiah 12.”
The moment has since been widely shared online, with viewers quick to mock the exchange.
One wrote on X: “This is so painful to watch. Piers Morgan asked Russell Brand to read the passages that were relevant to him when he brought his Bible into court.”
Another described it as “one of the most painfully awkward exchanges” of the week, while a third joked, “There should be a class act lawsuit against Russell Brand for making anyone suffer through this awkward moment. 2 mins of my life I will never get back.”
Brand’s appearance comes amid ongoing legal scrutiny. He has been accused by six women of offences dating between 1999 and 2009, all of which he denies.
The Independent reported that Brand’s trial is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court later this year.
During the interview, Brand also addressed a past relationship with a 16-year-old saying he now views his actions — while legal — in a different light.
“How I feel about it, as I’ve said, is that it’s not nice to know that my actions have contributed to a person’s suffering,” he said.
“There should be, there must be, justice for that. The context in which those consensual encounters was happening was a sort of merry deluge of constant consensual activity that was very, very difficult to sometimes believe was happening, but one adjusts to those kind of conditions.
“I would say, Piers, on a personal level, that’s wrong. It’s morally and spiritually wrong, it’s legal. It’s not a legal issue.”
