What now for Laura Gallacher, Russell Brand’s wife, who stood by her rapist husband? - The Independent

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For the duration of Russell Brand’s rape trial, his wife Laura Gallacher has arrived and left Southwark Crown Court at her husband’s side, often photographed clutching his hand. Today, though, she left court alone after the former comedian was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and was remanded in custody.

Brand, who pled not guilty to all charges and was acquitted of two further counts of rape and a count of attempted indecent assault, is due to be sentenced on Monday. The judge told him that he faces “a significant custodial term”, while the detective who led the Met Police’s investigation said that he hoped other women would gain “courage” and “confidence” from the guilty verdicts.

Although Laura has spent most of the last three years keeping a low profile in the couple’s newfound home in Florida, the past few months have thrust her back into the public eye in the UK. Earlier this month, she took to the stand to give evidence in support of her husband, who previously admitted he had struggled to find anyone who would testify on his behalf.

Now her life looks set to change dramatically once again. The judge denied a plea from Brand’s legal team to allow him to say goodbye to Laura and their three children as an “act of humanity”. Court reports described Laura as becoming tearful as the verdict was delivered.

Laura’s famous family may now close ranks around her. Last week, her father, the Scottish golfing ace Bernard Gallacher, accompanied her to court in what was interpreted by many as a display of paternal solidarity. Her older sister, the broadcaster Kirsty, was not present during the trial, and has not spoken about her sister’s relationship or the verdict yet, but is thought to be deeply protective of her younger sibling, who is 11 years her junior. "Her number one priority in all this is Laura," a source told The Sun. "She will always be her big sister."

Before she spoke to the court, Laura held a Bible and swore to tell nothing but the truth. It’s a book that she is also very familiar with. Laura now appears to be something of a born-again Christian, just like her husband (who was baptised in the River Thames, with the assistance of TV survivalist Bear Grylls, in 2024). For the past few months, she has been co-hosting a weekly podcast, Sunday Service, with Russell, recorded from their home. There is now, of course, a question mark hanging over the future of that joint endeavour.

Episodes saw the two of them talk about their Christian faith, recap Bible stories and share prayers; clips shared on YouTube are presented in a double-screen format, with strange AI-generated videos of Old Testament tales appearing alongside footage of the couple’s discussions.

The Brands’ pivot to a kind of all-American, Maga-friendly evangelising feels miles away from Laura’s home counties upbringing. Growing up on the Wentworth Estate, a gated golfing estate in Virginia Water, Surrey, she lived alongside Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, after Sarah Ferguson moved there following her separation from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The significant age gap between Laura and her older sister, the broadcaster and model Kirsty, 50, and their brother Jamie, meant that she “spent a lot of time alone”, she recalled to The Telegraph in 2022. “My parents allowed me a lot of time outside to be creative, like making mud pies and petal perfumes. To me, that was a world of magic”.

When she was 18, she headed off to art school. A year later, she first met Russell, who was then 31, and shared an agent with Laura’s older sister. Their relationship, however, didn’t last long, with the comedian and presenter about to reach the apex of his fame, going from hosting Channel 4 shows to booking roles in Hollywood movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Reflecting on their romance years later, Laura admitted: “I really fell in love. I’d never experienced love like that before – which made for a good story at the wedding.”

When she gave testimony in court, Laura admitted that she was very aware” of Brand’s promiscuity during that early stage of their relationship. “I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with him if he was sleeping with other people,” she recalled. “I was invested, we both had told each other we loved each other but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous.”

Russell would go on to marry Katy Perry in 2010, before they announced their split just 14 months later (the singer later claimed that he ended their marriage via text message). Laura, meanwhile, went on to work in the hospitality industry. But in 2015, a chance encounter threw them back into one another’s orbit.

Laura was “heartbroken” in the depths of a break-up, and her “ex had literally moved out of our flat that day”, she told Grazia in 2020. A friend dragged her outside to walk along the canal in east London, then, “as we came onto the footpath, Russell was standing there, like he’d organised it”.

This time, she reflected, Russell was “so different” to the person she’d known in the Noughties, and they “both immediately knew it was going to be serious”. After they “really courted the old-fashioned way” for two years, they tied the knot near the home in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, in a ceremony attended by the likes of Jonathan Ross, Noel Gallagher and David Baddiel.

About nine months earlier, they’d welcomed their first child, a daughter named Mabel; another daughter, Peggy, was born in 2018, and a son, Herb, followed in 2023. In interviews, the comedian painted a bucolic picture of family life in their riverside thatched cottage, where the couple and their children were joined by a menagerie of chickens, pigs and cats.

But you didn’t have to read between the lines to glean that Laura appeared to take on the majority of the childcare. In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2019, Russell said that he was “not so good” when it came to changing nappies, and even revealed that he had never spent 24 hours alone in charge of his kids. “Laura does all of it,” he said. “I am dedicated to it, devoted to it, but I am still surprised when it’s like ‘Oh my God, this is really f***king hard and it’s so exhausting.”

His remarks inevitably sparked backlash, with his sister-in-law Kirsty wading in to write them off as “flippant comment[s]” and to defend him as “very hands-on”. In her 2020 interview with Grazia, promoting her book The Joy Journal, Laura echoed a similar sentiment. “We really do have fun together,” she said. “Sometimes it can look like I’m dealing with an adult toddler, but Russell’s really into doing the stuff I’m into.”

In 2023, those interests aligned when they launched an alcohol-free wellness festival called Community, with a lineup that included meditation, breathwork, ice baths and wild swimming, as well as talks from Russell himself.

Later that year, Laura, who’d previously posted illustrations and insights into family life on her social media, deleted her Instagram account; the interviews stopped, too, and she has not published a book since. In 2024, the family relocated to Santa Rosa Beach in Florida, perhaps to escape the media glare back home.

Their rumoured $1m bungalow is in an area nicknamed “the Hamptons of the South”, and since the move Stateside, Russell, who once appeared on the front cover of The New Statesman and backed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 election, has doubled down on peddling right-wing views and conspiracy theories. In 2024, he drew mockery for advertising a “magical amulet” that professed to protect its wearer from WiFi and “evil energy”.

Then came the very public Christian rebirth, which has only helped to cement his status and boost his profile among the MAGA faithful and Republican elite, for whom religious identity can translate to political power. Now Laura appears to have set aside her dislike of publicity to join her husband on the microphone – because every religious guru needs their forbearing, loving helpmeet by their side.

The Brands initially announced their intention to keep podcasting through these “times of challenge”, and during a recent episode, Laura admitted her unease at returning to the spotlight. “I got nervous before going to court,” she said. “I’m not used to getting out of the car and seeing lots of photographers.”

During the weeks of her husband’s trial, though, she had to adapt. And that glare is unlikely to lessen any time soon.

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