![Katharine McPhee addresses a clip of Russell Brand pulling her onto his lap](https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Katharine-McPhee-Addresses-Clip-of-Russell-Brand-Pulling-Her-Onto-His-Lap-1.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all)
Katharine McPhee and Russell Brand
Anna Webber/Getty Images; MelMedia/Getty ImagesKatharine McPhee responded to suggestions that she looked “uncomfortable” in a resurfaced video of Russell Brand pulling her onto his lap during a joint performance on a late night show.
“I do not know anything [about] what you’re trying to say here, but this particular incident was over 10 years ago and it was harmless,” McPhee, 39, wrote in the comments of an Instagram post about the encounter. “Please don’t try to use me for any purpose.”
During a 2013 interview on Late Night with Jimmy FallonBrand, 48, was already sitting next to the host Jimmy Fallon when McPhee left the set. Fallon, 49, asked Brand to move forward so McPhee could get his seat, but instead Brand pulled McPhee onto his lap.
“Katharine can come sit here,” Brand said, wrapping his arms around McPhee’s waist. “For the queen!”
![Katharine McPhee addresses a clip of Russell Brand pulling her onto his lap](https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Katharine-McPhee-Addresses-Clip-of-Russell-Brand-Pulling-Her-Onto-His-Lap-3.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all)
Brand finally stood up, moved and told McPhee, “You’re beautiful.” After switching seats, he added: “I’ll just be here with my sexual charisma.”
The decade-old video resurfaced in the wake of a Saturday, September 16 report from the British newspaper The timesin which four women accused Brand of sexual assault between 2006 and 2013. One woman claimed she was 16 during her relationship with Brand, who was in her 30s at the time, and referred to her as “the child.”
![Katharine McPhee addresses a clip of Russell Brand pulling her onto his lap](https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Katharine-McPhee-Addresses-Clip-of-Russell-Brand-Pulling-Her-Onto-His-Lap-2.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all)
Another woman alleged that Brand raped her in his Los Angeles home. She was treated at a rape crisis center on the same day The times said it was confirmed through medical records.
For his part, Brand preemptively denied the allegations in a video shared via social media on Friday, September 15. “I have received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company [and] one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely blatant and aggressive attacks,” he said, adding that he “absolutely” refuted the “very serious allegations” against him.
Brand didn’t mention it Time article by name, but said the allegations related to the period when he was “working in the mainstream” as an actor.
‘As I’ve described extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. In those days of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolute, always consensual,” Brand continued, referring to his memoir. “I have always been transparent about that, almost too transparent. And I am now also transparent about it. And to see how that transparency turned into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me doubt myself [if] There is a different agenda at play.”
Brand is married to Laura Gallacher since 2017. The couple has two daughters: Mabel, 6, and Peggy, 4. In June, Brand announced that they are expecting their third baby.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).