Inside story of the day Russell Brand's then-girlfriend Jemima Goldsmith hired him a £500 'full-figured' masseuse... who was later hit by a draconian gagging order

Detailed summary

The saga returned to the news pages this week amid widespread soul-searching over Brand's use of expensive lawyers to keep awkward incidents out of the public eye.

Published: 01:00 GMT, 12 November 2026 | Updated: 07:29 GMT, 12 November 2026

The rich are, as the old saying goes, different from you and me. And not just because they have more money.

Take, for example, a surreal chapter in Russell Brand's life story that involves his ex-girlfriend Jemima Goldsmith, along with a voluptuous Hungarian masseuse and an alleged heated dispute involving a white Alsatian by the name of Brian.

The saga, which unfolded in 2014 and 2015, returned to the news pages this week amid widespread soul-searching over Brand's use of expensive lawyers to keep awkward incidents out of the public eye.

Given what we now know, aspects of how it played out look very questionable indeed.

At the centre of the whole thing is a 'full-figured, curvy BBW [Big Beautiful Woman]' therapist who undertook a two-hour car journey from her home in Wimbledon, south-west London, to Ms Goldsmith's Cotswolds mansion, ostensibly to provide Brand with a birthday rubdown. There followed a short but heated argument over (among other things) money, plus a police investigation into claims of physical abuse and counter-claims of racial harassment.

A long campaign of litigation then ensued, resulting in a draconian (and now hugely controversial) gagging order being issued by the High Court, preventing the therapist, who claimed that she had been assaulted by Brand, from ever again discussing her alleged experience, even with detectives.

Russell Brand and Jemima Goldsmith, who dated between between 2013 and 2014, at a charity event for Palestinian refugees in London in 2014

The pair have always denied Hungarian masseuse Szilvia Berki's allegations of a heated dispute involving a white Alsatian by the name of Brian

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Mail. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.