Russell Brand and Peaches Geldof: Why did Bob Geldof swear at Brand? Did Brand date his daughter Peaches?

A number of serious sexual assault allegations have been revealed against comedian Russell Brand in a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.

As part of the investigation, a special Dispatches documentary called ‘Russell Brand: In Plain Sight’ was aired last night (Saturday 16 September) on Channel 4. The documentary showed the stories of five of Brand’s victims, the youngest of whom was 16 at the time of the alleged offences.

The programme also showed various clips of Brand from television and radio shows he appeared on at the time he was supposedly committing the offences, including one of him making crude sexual jokes, one of him talking to now-known paedophile Jimmy Savile and also one of he and presenter Jonathan Ross making the prank phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs which became known as ‘Sachsgate’. Brand denies all of the allegations against him.

One other clip showed singer-songwriter and political activist Bob Geldof referring Brand as a c***, but the context behind the incident was not given. So, just why did Geldof use the swear word when speaking about Brand, and did the disgraced comedian date Geldof’s late daughter Peaches? Here’s what you need to know.

Why did Bob Geldof call Russell Brand a c***?

During the NME awards 2006, which Brand was presenting, Bob Geldof called him a “c***” while he was on stage.

The incident occurred when Geldof was called to the stage by Brand to accept the award for Best Music DVD, which had been won by Live8, a series of benefit concerts which Geldof had organised the year before. 

When he announced the winner, Brand referred to Geldof as “Sir Bobby Gandalf”. When he made his way up to the stage, Geldof shared a brief and tense-looking handshake with Brand before taking the microphone and saying “Russell Brand, what a c***”. The two then looked awkwardly at each other.

 The comedian replied: "Bob Geldof there, obviously an amazing man to whom we have a lot to be grateful – not him calling me a c*** of course. Really it was “no surprise [Geldof]’s such an expert on famine. He has, after all, been dining out on (his hit song) ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ for 30 years.” This response was not seen in the clip broadcast in the documentary.

Did Russell Brand date Peaches Geldof?

Brand was linked to Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches in the early noughties, but a relationship between them was never confirmed.

Peaches was just one of many high-profile women which Brand is said to have dated during the height of his fame. According to  the website whosdatedwho.com they were an item between August and September 2006, but The Daily Mail mentioned in 2006 that Peaches said she flirted with him at a party, but no more than that.

Peaches, who died in April 2014 of a drug overdose at the age of 25, would have been 17 at the time of the supposed relationship and Brand would have been 31. When news of Peaches’ untimely death was released, Brand posted a video to his Youtube channel where he said: “It’s too sad that Peaches Geldof has died. . .  It’s a person that I sort of knew a little.”

He also used the video to hit out at the mainstream media, declaring: “In 2014, this is the end of this type of media . . . print media . . . but what we have to ensure is that television media and online media don’t use the characteristics that have proven to be successful in print media . . . Salaciousness, intrusion, condemnations, simplification. . . That kind of ideology can’t prevail because it’s inhuman.”

In the video, which has 293,000 views, he also called the coverage of Peaches’ death in the national newspapers as “unpleasant”. 

Gesturing at a selection of newspapers he was holding which had reported Peaches’ death on their front page, he added: “Human beings are capable of being so much, we’re capable of such wonderful things, that to sort of rinse it down, narrow it down [and] wring it out into this is very, very unsavoury.”