There was little doubt that Russell Brand’s wife, Laura, would stand firmly beside him when he arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
Holding his hand as the comedian entered the courtroom and again as he left after the jury was sworn in, Laura made clear that she is supporting her husband of nine years. Brand is facing three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault.
Wearing a chocolate-brown trouser suit by American designer Veronica Beard, white trainers and sunglasses, Laura offered the faintest of smiles as she climbed into a chauffeur-driven people carrier outside the court.
She is expected to return to court throughout her husband’s estimated ten-week trial, despite being around 4,500 miles from the Brand family’s new home in Florida: a $2.5 million (£1.89 million) waterfront property at Santa Rosa Beach.
For Laura, who has never appeared entirely at ease in the public eye, it represents a notably defiant stance. However, a long-term associate of the 38-year-old author and illustrator said supporting her husband was “the only one she would possibly ever make”, because she has never questioned his innocence.
People familiar with the couple say Laura’s loyalty to the 51-year-old Brand has been “huge” as he prepared for a trial involving allegations spanning a decade, from 1999 to 2009. The accusations predate their marriage in 2017, although the pair briefly dated in 2007.
Russell Brand leaves London’s Southwark Crown Court on the opening day of his trial, with his wife of nine years, Laura, by his side
Brand arrives at court carrying a Bible to face charges of rape, sexual assault and indecent assault
“What Russell is accused of happened long before he and Laura got back together,” an associate said. “It isn’t going to be easy, but they are determined to get through this.”
“Laura is absolutely besotted with Russell; she always has been. Being there on day one was a must for her.”
Laura was not with Brand throughout Monday’s proceedings, with those close to the family pointing out that she also has three children to care for. She is nevertheless expected to make several more trips to Southwark in the weeks ahead.
The couple are understood to be staying in the Home Counties and are expected to spend time with Laura’s parents.
Laura is the daughter of Ryder Cup-winning golfer Bernard Gallacher and his wife, Lesley. She grew up with her elder sister, sports presenter Kirsty, and her brother, amateur golfer Jamie, in a six-bedroom mansion on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey.
Her neighbours included the late Sir Bruce Forsyth and Sir Cliff Richard. Laura attended the £45,000-a-year St George’s School in Ascot, where Princess Beatrice was one of her contemporaries.
After studying art at university, Laura entered the restaurant industry and worked on the opening of Electric Diner on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The venue was owned by the Soho House group.
Her life took a different turn in 2015. Laura, then in her late 20s, was recovering from a painful breakup when a friend encouraged her to take a walk near the Grand Union canal in east London, close to her home.
Brand with Laura, the daughter of a golf legend, while shopping in Hampstead in 2009
The walk became a sliding-doors moment. As Laura made her way along the towpath, she encountered Brand, who was also single and dealing with the end of his relationship with US pop star Katy Perry.
Brand recognised Laura immediately, having met her before. The pair had briefly dated in 2007, when she was a 19-year-old art student. Brand was then at the height of his success, hosting his own Radio 2 show, presenting the reality programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth and its spin-off, Big Brother: According to Russell Brand, while also touring the UK with his stand-up show Russell Brand: Only Joking.
Laura was one of several women Brand dated during that period. His former partners also included Rod Stewart’s daughter Kimberly, Big Brother star Imogen Thomas and Georgina Baillie, the granddaughter of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs. Brand made lewd remarks about Baillie during a prank phone call on his Radio 2 programme with Jonathan Ross.
But their reunion came at a time when Brand, who was approaching 40, was yearning to settle down and marry again after splitting with Katy in 2011. ‘My ex had literally moved out of our flat that day, and I was heartbroken, with mascara running down my face,’ Laura told Grazia five years after their chance meeting.
‘As we came onto the footpath, Russell was standing there. It was like he’d organised it. I hadn’t seen him for years. He was so different. We both immediately knew it was going to be serious.’
They rekindled their romance, moving in together almost immediately.
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Brand with his ex, US pop singer Katy Perry, who he dated for two years before the couple spilt in 2011
‘Laura was besotted with Russell,’ a friend told me. ‘She wanted to mend him. She had known him all of those years back when he was the man to date, but by the time she met him again he had been through the mill with Katy Perry.’ Laura is the woman who, sources claim, tamed him after years as a drug-taking, hell-raising lothario who boasted of having bedded 1,000 women.
‘He was over that by the time he met Laura, way past it all,’ says a former friend. ‘There were never any rumours about his love life after they began their relationship.’
Brand and Laura wasted little time setting up their life together. Their first child, Mabel, now nine, came along a year after they met.
Then, in 2017, they married at Remenham Church near their home in Henley-on-Thames, joined by famous guests such Jonathan Ross, Noel Gallagher and David Baddiel.
The newlyweds welcomed daughter Peggy a year later and their son Herb in 2023.
Meanwhile, Laura gave up her career in hospitality and began writing books. In 2020, she published The Joy Journal for Magical Everyday Play for children. Next, came The Joy Journal for Grown-ups and then Slow Down And Be Here Now.
Life was idyllic for the Brands as they enjoyed a quiet life in rural Oxfordshire. Married life consisted of dogs, chickens and lots of cats.
The couple also bought a narrowboat for weekend cruises and started working as wellness gurus, hosting a festival called Community with Laura + Russell Brand in Hay-on-Wye in the summer of 2023.
The three-day vegan, alcohol-free event included holistic therapies, a practical life workshop, canoeing and comedy. It was quite the contrast to the Brand I used to see hanging out in the hippest of haunts in north London. ‘Russell didn’t want to be in the limelight any more,’ says a former friend of the star. ‘He wanted to escape and Laura was the perfect person to escape with.’
Before that, Brand’s love life was barely out of the headlines – hardly a surprise when you look at his romantic back catalogue which features the likes of Kate Moss, Jemima Khan and even Peaches Geldof.
Once hanging off Brand’s arm was the finest status symbol in showbusiness. Today, few women would want to be in Laura’s shoes.
Back in 2023, in an investigation carried out by The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches, five women publicly accused Brand of sexual assault, as well as sexual and emotional abuse. Brand denied all allegations, saying in response that he had been ‘very, very promiscuous’, but that his relationships had been ‘absolutely, always consensual’.
Those claims led to the Metropolitan Police opening an investigation, which saw Brand charged in April last year with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault, in relation to alleged offences involving four women between 1999 and 2005.
New charges were brought in December last year, alleging one count of rape and one of sexual assault against two women, said to have taken place in London in 2009.
Today, there is no sign of Laura on social media. She deleted her Instagram in 2023 following the investigation into Brand. She has also not published any books recently and she appears to have ditched her plans to become a wellness guru.
In April last year, Brand announced they had moved to the US – but not before he was baptised in the River Thames by Bear Grylls.
‘Seemingly, they wanted a new start,’ an associate of the pair tells me. ‘Russell has maintained his innocence from the word go but the noise around it all is a lot.’
In America, they live on the trendy Scenic Highway 30A, the winding coastal corridor along Florida’s Emerald Coast, which locals call the Hamptons of the South. Laura’s move to the US, leaving behind her own beloved family, begs the question of just what her father Bernard makes of his son-in-law?
While it’s unknown what he says about the allegations, one showbiz source says he was always ‘very fond’ of Brand. Meanwhile, Lesley, whom Bernard married in 1973, is said to be an ‘extremely supportive’ mother.
As for Kirsty, 12 years her sister’s senior, she too has been very public in sharing her support for her brother-in-law. Back in 2023, she shared a video Brand posted on Instagram protesting his innocence alongside a red heart emoji. Her sympathetic post prompted much backlash and she later removed it.
Kirsty is said to ‘always be loyal’ to Laura. That sisterly bond, say those who know Laura, is going to be crucial in helping her get through the coming weeks as she’s forced to hear those allegations levelled at her husband.
