News 261K views since yesterday

"She called it rape": Khorsandi recounts friend's experience with Brand

In a Channel 4 News interview, the comedian describes what a friend told her and reflects on consent, workplace harassment and her own experiences of assault.

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Channel 4 News Story of November 7, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of Channel 4 News's most watched videos since yesterday, with 260,703 views.

'She called it rape': Comedian Shappi Khorsandi on her friend's experience with Brand

Things we can learn from the video

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3:03Khorsandi recalls an Edinburgh show invitation followed by an angry phone call over accommodation costs.
9:45Khorsandi says her friend described her encounter with Brand as rape.
12:00She argues that comedy's rock-and-roll culture enabled harmful behaviour towards women.
20:00Khorsandi recounts waking during a sexual assault after staying with someone she trusted, separate from Brand.
23:33She says a separate assault she reported to police resulted in a conviction, community service and sex-offender registration.

Shappi Khorsandi remembers a friend describing an encounter with Russell Brand that left her feeling she had not been treated as a person. Speaking to Channel 4 News correspondent Minnie Stephenson, Khorsandi is explicit about how her friend understood it: "She called it rape."

The interview, part of For the Record: Russell Brand on Trial, adds a fellow comedian's recollections to the coverage of Brand's conviction. According to Channel 4 News, a jury found him guilty of one rape and three sexual assaults. Brand denied all the charges and has maintained that he has only had consensual sex.

Khorsandi recalls meeting Brand at the Hackney Empire finals in 2000 and immediately recognising his charisma. But her account of an invitation to share an Edinburgh Fringe show also includes an angry telephone call over accommodation costs. Admiration became unease: "I thought he was cool. I did. But I was a bit scared of him."

She becomes tearful while reflecting on the comedy culture of the early 2000s and the difficulty of articulating experiences that felt wrong. "We didn't have the language to describe how things like this made us feel," she says. She also rejects Brand's suggestion that women had "reimagined" past encounters.

The interview drew roughly 261,000 views since yesterday, the largest audience for Channel 4 News's new uploads over that period.

Khorsandi also describes her own experiences of sexual assault, separate from Brand. She recounts waking during an assault after staying with someone she trusted, and later reporting a different assault at a gig to police. In that case, she says, the perpetrator was convicted, received community service and was placed on the sex offenders register.

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