Piers Morgan, 61, says Russell Brand, 50, was “inappropriately tactile” during a now-viral interview in which the comedian struggled to find a Bible passage.
An X user asked the British broadcaster if he was bothered by Brand reaching out to him and patting his arm during the interview on his YouTube talk show, noting “all the touching was extremely condescending”.
“It was a bit weird, yes. Never had a guest be so inappropriately tactile during an interview, which surprised me given the allegations against him,” Morgan replied.
Watch the video above.
During the April 25 episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, the host asked Brand to recite a Bible passage he says he read before a recent UK court hearing for rape and sexual assault charges.
In a moment the comedian has since described as “dire”, he failed to find the exact passage. As he flipped through pages of his Bible, trying to find the verse, Morgan sat silently next to him for 90 seconds.
Brand is facing multiple charges of rape and sexual assault based on allegations from four different women between 1999 and 2005. He denies any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault charges in a UK court earlier this year.
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Recently, on The Megyn Kelly Show, Brand said he slept “with a 16-year-old when I was 30″, which was legal due to the age of consent in the UK being 16.
The comedian’s interview with Morgan went viral online, with Brand facing intense backlash almost immediately.
Speaking to BBC Radio, Morgan said: “I don’t think I’ve actually ever had any interview clip that has provoked so many memes.”
The interviewer continued his commentary on X, saying: “[Brand’s] pre-show prayer was almost as excruciating as the extended Bible-rustling….”
Two days after Brand’s unfortunate appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star took to X sharing he’d finally found the Bible verse.
“I was looking for it. I thought, ‘I should find the actual right passage – the exact one I was looking at when I was sat in the dark in the court.”
“This is the verse I was looking at that day,” he continued, before reading out the text.
“‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.'”
Brand then asked his followers if they ever felt that what they “personally face will align and combine with something universal.”
Brand’s court case is still underway in the UK.
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