Russell Brand now has only good things to say about ex-wife Katy Perry, but he describes the time they were together as a combination of good things and bad things.
“Aside from my, like, sort of feelings of affection for Katy, it’s a time that I remember as being a little bit chaotic and a bit, for me, I’ll speak for myself, a little disconnected,” Brand, 48, revealed during his appearance on the Sunday, August 6, episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge.
Brand explained that his relationship with Perry, 38, coincided with the point in his career when he was “most in the public eye” because of his roles in movies including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
“Some aspects of it were, like, amazing,” Brand told host Bear Grylls as they hiked through Scotland’s Hebrides islands. “She’s an amazing person, and it was kind of incredible to live for a moment in that ‘eye of the cyclone’ type aspect of fame.”
Brand and Perry got engaged in late 2009 after three months of dating, and they tied the knot in October 2010 in a ceremony held in Rajasthan, India. Just a year later, however, Brand filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.
Brand later hinted that he and Perry disagreed about starting a family. “I was really into the idea of marriage and having children,” he explained during a 2012 interview with Howard Stern, adding that he didn’t feel comfortable sharing further details about the conversations they had. “I don’t want anything to hurt her.”
Brand went on to welcome two children — daughters Mabel, 6, and Peggy, 5 — with wife Laura Gallacher, whom he wed in August 2017. In June, he revealed that he and Gallacher, 36, are currently expecting their third baby.
“[Fatherhood has] taught me there is a lot more important in this world than me,” Brand explained during an interview on Steven Bartlett‘s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast. “It taught me that love is real. It teaches you everything to become a father. All lessons are there.”
Perry, for her part, welcomed daughter Daisy Dove, now 2, with Orlando Bloom in August 2020. Bloom, 46, and Perry got engaged in February 2019.
In 2013, Perry claimed Brand told her that he wanted a divorce by sending her a text message. “He’s a very smart man, and I was in love with him when I married him,” she told Vogue. “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011.”
