Updated November 10, 2026, 8:11 p.m. ET
Megyn Kelly has called Russell Brand’s 10 years and six months prison sentence for rape and sexual assault a “scandal”, saying it confirmed her belief that the case against the British comedian was a “political witch hunt”.
“Holy shit. Ten and a half years in prison,” Kelly said on the Nov. 9 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “He grabbed a breast? He kissed the lady? He sniffed a lady?” she said. Kelly also referenced anal sex involving one of Brand’s accusers. “He’s going to jail for ten and a half years for this. It’s insane.”
During the episode, the conservative commentator played a clip from that day’s sentencing hearing in which Judge Joel Bennathan told Brand that he had become a “sexual predator as his fame grew.”
“He absolutely had his finger on the scale,” Kelly said of Bennathan. “He clearly didn’t like Russell and neither did the press.” She also criticized media coverage of the verdict and sentence, saying it presented Brand in an unfair light.
“If you read the news stories about Russell’s case, his verdict and his sentencing over the last three days, it’s clear they’re treating him like he’s one of the most prolific sexual predators to ever walk the face of the earth,” Kelly said.
On November 5, a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found Brand, 51, guilty of raping a woman and sexually assaulting three other women between 2004 and 2009. Brand had pleaded not guilty to all seven charges. Jurors acquitted him of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.
Kelly, who interviewed Brand in April, repeatedly described sexual assault as “breast grabbing, kissing, sniffing.”
In questioning the rape conviction, she pointed out that one of the women involved in the case agreed to have vaginal sex with Brand that night. Kelly called the woman’s account a “made-up statement” after noting that a prosecutor read her victim impact statement in court.
What the judge said about Russell Brand’s sentence
During the four-week trial, prosecutors said the first offense occurred in 1999, when Brand allegedly raped a woman in a hotel room after a show in England. In 2001, he allegedly tried to drag a woman into the men’s restroom at the MTV Europe offices after she complimented his shirt.
In his sentencing remarks, Bennathan said one of the women, then 21, agreed to vaginal sex with a condom. Brand removed it without her consent, forced anal sex on her and continued after she twice asked him to stop, the judge said.
Contributors: Brendan Morrow, Liza Esquibias, USA TODAY; Reuters
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