Comedian Russell Brand Gets Candid About Fatherhood, Sex Addiction, Drug Abuse & More

Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist.

The doting dad, 42, recently opens up to Us Weekly about his new book, Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions, and welcoming his first child daughter Mabel with wife Laura Gallacher, in November 2016.

The Rock Of Ages actor, 42, also talked about his first encounter with heroin at 19, struggling with a sex addiction, split from first wife and how he’s going to address his past with his daughter when she grows up.

Russell was previously married to American songstress Katy Perry from 2010-2012.

On the birth of Mabel and when he first held her:

She was so beautiful. She came out perfect. It was like a drug in that it changed my consciousness in a way that I could not have anticipated. By the time I held her, I felt like an animal in a cave.

I felt such strong feelings of protectiveness and love that I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want anyone near her. The feelings were extremely intense and to be honest they haven’t really gone away.

On how fatherhood has changed him:

It has made me recognize that what I want and what I need is not important. It’s what she wants and what she needs. That’s a good thing because I can be a very self-obsessed guy.

Mabel is very, very active. She’s domineering, a powerful, strong person. She’s charming and wants to talk to other people. She’s her own person already. It’s really amazing.”

On how he will teach her about his past:

I’m going to bring her up using the program. It’s the only thing I know that works. I’m going to encourage her to talk openly about her feelings and identity.

I’m sure all parents think this. I’ve already argued with friends of mine like, “I’ll be able to reach her!” ”

On how his marriage to second wife Laura Gallacher is different than his first marriage to Katy Perry:

I’ve changed a lot in the last five years. I don’t compare my relationships now to previous relationships out of respect to my present wife and to Katy Perry.

I think I’m an easier person to be with now. I’m also in a very different situation. I’m dependent on my wife. In relationships, there is always going to be a level of dependency.

But I try not to project my problems onto other people and perhaps I’ve not always been like that.”

On how he struggled with bulimia, drugs, and sex addiction

Addiction is defining our culture. We think we can make ourselves feel better by buying stuff, eating stuff, wearing stuff. Obvious addiction, like drug addiction, is just the extreme of something that a lot of people are suffering from.

Drugs then sex then caring too much about other people’s opinion of me. Drugs are just the obvious one. If someone is a crack addict or a heroin addict, they get into problems real quickly.

But if you’re obsessed with what other people think about you or you’re obsessed with social media, it consumes your life.

By the time I took heroin, I was just a person who really liked things that affected the way I felt, that changed the way I felt. And it felt good.

People don’t take drugs because drugs are bad. People take drugs because drugs are fantastic. The problem is that drugs don’t deal with the root problem. It doesn’t treat the pain. You can’t take heroin all day everyday like I did. It got me into trouble.

When I became sexually aware as a teenager, I got very obsessive about sex and women and pornography. So the problem around sex was present back then.

I was very uncomfortable with my body, so my problems were around porn and food. Then I took drugs between 16 and 19 and then heroin.

I lost a lot of weight and moved from the suburbs into the city. Women were now attracted to me. I went sort of crazy with that.

The sexual addiction, for me, was worse when I was clean. I think for about five, 10 years it was really bad. Listen, I’m lucky. I was famous. I’m heterosexual. I’m attracted to adult, human females. It’s not complicated. I don’t have any weird tastes. It was a good position to be in if you have that particular problem.

Russell and Laura tied the knot in an “intimate” ceremony in front of their friends and family in August, 2017.

Photo credit: Eroteme/WireImage/Darren Fletcher