If there was ever a story that Meghan Markle didn’t deserve her name being dragged into, it’s this. In fact, there’s a lot of them, but this ranks top three at least. According to Google Trends data, the question ‘Did Russell Brand sleep with Meghan Markle?’ is a breakout search today, up 400% as people continue digging into Brand’s past following the allegations of sexual abuse made against him (which he entirely denies).
It's not just rogue outliers Googling weird stuff either, other variations of the question like ‘Has Russell Brand slept with Meghan Markle?’ and ‘Did Meghan Markle and Russell Brand hook up?’ are also breakout search terms. So, what’s going on? Well, it’s all thanks to old interviews with Russell Brand resurfacing online, and in one of them her reportedly brags about kissing Meghan Markle.
Why 'Did Russell Brand Sleep With Meghan Markle?' is trending:
Now, this is where things get confusing, because Russell Brand alleges to have kissed Meghan Markle for a scene in his 2010 film, Get him to the Greek. In a 2018 interview on Loose Women, Brand was asked ‘Is it true that you’ve snogged Meghan Markle?’ to which he replies: ‘As a matter of fact, it is. But let me say, before you get carried away with it […] it’s because she was in a film, I was in.’
‘I didn't know at the time because she wasn't married to a royal person, so I wasn't paying attention,’ Brand says. ‘I don't remember the film that much because I was still out of it then, but I think I planted one on her in the scene… I only know this because I saw a clip of it somewhere.’
The clip in question is a montage scene where Brand and Jonah Hill are out clubbing in London, Brand is seen kissing a brunette woman on the mouth that many reports have claimed is Meghan Markle. She is also credited as playing ‘Tatiana’ in the film on her imDB page. Look closely at the image associated with the scene though, and you’ll notice the woman in question that Brand kisses doesn’t actually look that much like Meghan Markle at all.
Is Meghan Markle actually the woman Russell Brand kisses in Get Him To The Greek? Given the extensive amount of time we’ve spent writing about Markle, which involves endless picture research, and thus having seen this woman’s face from every single angle possible thousands of times over, we would argue no. Grazia has reached out to Meghan Markle’s team for clarity but are yet to receive a reply.
Whether or not it is really Meghan Markle kissing Russell Brand in the movie, ‘Meghan Markle Get Him To The Greek’ is another breakout search term on Google right now. People are clearly desperate to know more about this story, but we must ask: does she really need to be dragged into this? At a time when Russell Brand stands accused of the most harrowing crimes, which he entirely denies, it feels unnecessary that people are even seeking to link Markle to the comedian.
Beyond that, to take a story about an alleged kiss in a movie scene and have it snowball into search around whether or not ‘Meghan Markle slept with Russell Brand’ says a lot about the way in which stories that involve the Duchess of Sussex can easily escalate into unnecessarily salacious, demeaning rumours. Let’s leave Meghan Markle’s name out of this then and get back to the real story – the women accusing Brand deserve better than to have their story brushed over with wild celebrity rumours.