Katherine Ryan jokes about the ‘elephant in the room’ in speech after speaking out amid Russell Brand sex abuse claims
KATHERINE Ryan has joked about the “elephant in the room” in a speech after speaking out amid Russell Brand sex abuse claims.
The comedian, 40, was on stage at the RTS Cambridge on Wednesday night for a set where she discussed her sex life, kids and ancestry.
As she got into the skit, Katherine revealed that she had lost two stone in the last two months.
She then went on to joke that her weight loss was the “elephant in the room” as she avoided any talk of her former colleague Brand, 48.
Her appearance comes just days after multiple women claimed Brand sexually assaulted them.
Katherine last year revealed she’d confronted a colleague on a popular television programme because she believed he was an abuser.
She couldn’t name the co-worker at the time because it was a “litigious nightmare”, and added that she hadn’t been assaulted by them.
It has since been revealed that the person she was referring to was Brand and the comments made where whilst they were both on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle in 2018.
Five women have accused Brand of rape and sexual assault between 2006 and 2013.
All of the claims, which Brand has denied, are said to have happened at the height of his fame, a The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches probe found.
Speaking to fellow comic Sara Pascoe during her Amazon Prime series Backstage with Katherine Ryan, she said: “I’ve done a show with a person who you and I believe is a predator.
“What am I supposed to do?
“I’ve thought about that, but it’s such a messy thing because I don’t have proof – what, am I not supposed to feed my children because of someone else?”
Sara then said: “Also in that instance that you’re referencing it was about raising it.”
Katherine added: “I raised it. I called him a predator to his face and in front of everyone every day.”
The Canadian comic also told Louis Theroux she confronted the unnamed man while they worked on a TV show “again and again”.