It was Katy Perry’s birthday on Sunday and while she clearly had a jolly time celebrating with her mates at Olive Garden restaurant in Los Angeles, she was also weathering a personal storm.
As reported in this week’s issue of Grazia, the 31-year-old singer has not only had to suffer a blistering online attack from one of the US’s most prominent publications, but she has also had her 14-month marriage to Russell Brand publicly picked over – by the very man she once loved.
Russell ended their short-lived union by text message on New Year’s Eve 2011, but a new documentary, out this week and filmed during their marriage, reveals his intimate opinions of his wife and offers his take on what went wrong.
Last week Grazia saw a preview of the documentary, a lot of which charters the downfall of the Brands’ marriage.
Russell visits Africa for Comic Relief in 2010 and it has such a profound effect on him that he rapidly begins to loath his A-list life and what his world-famous pop-star wife stands for.
‘That stuff in Africa hit me really hard,’ he says. ‘I’m associated with the very thing that I detest: vapid, vacuous, plastic, constructed, mindless celebrity.’ Referring to his life as Katy’s husband, he sneers, ‘That’s the very sea we’re swimming in... “Oh who’s he? He’s married to Katy Perry.”’
Russell’s mate, Noel Gallagher, is filmed giving his insight into how he knew the marriage wouldn’t last long and Russell is shown mocking his wife’s accent in stand-up routines.
But it’s when the 40-year-old is filmed showing his comedian friend, Stephen Merchant, around his marital home, that Russell gives his most startling take on his marriage.
"It’s definitely good I’m with someone I love" he tells Stephen. "And it’s also good, I suppose, that person is a pop star. But it’s not a resolution to anything spiritual. This is my suspicion, that at some point to be happy I am going to have to walk away from it."
Later, Russell gives his verdict on their split. "Fame can be a very corrupting and corrosive phenomenon in people’s lives," he says. "And I think it’s probably the right thing to pursue what she’s pursuing. I mean she’s a massive, famous pop star. But I think that probably takes a massive amount of energy, focus and will. I think we were going in different directions. Possibly opposite directions."
Meanwhile, Katy was also said to be hurt last week by a vicious piece in *New York Magazine *entitled, What is the point of Katy Perry, even?, which compared her unfavourably to Taylor Swift and described her as "a void with swappable wigs, a tasty nothing burger." Ouch.
Sources have told Grazia that Katy is now planning to take some time out to reflect on the past few years, they add that it’s telling she recently changed her Twitter bio to read ‘Growing.’
*By Emily Maddick *