Russell Brand felt 'inadequate' in Katy Perry marriage

Russell Brand has revealed he felt "inadequate and insecure" during his marriage to Katy Perry.

The actor and comedian has opened up about his relationship with the pop star, whom he was married to from 2010 to 2012.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Brand admitted he "didn't handle that marriage very well".

Reflecting on what went wrong, he told political commentator Megyn Kelly that he entered the relationship feeling unfulfilled in his own life.

"When you fall in love with someone, like, isn't it amazing to be in love? Well, imagine that compounded with everyone else acting like it's important," he said. "Plus, she's a really lovely ... You know what there is about her? She has an innocence. She's a very beautiful person."

The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor continued of his ex-wife, "She's also incredibly driven and worked really, really hard. I saw her working really hard."

Brand insisted that he takes "total accountability" for the breakdown of the marriage.

"Here's me taking total responsibility for all the mistakes I made in that marriage," he told Kelly. "I wanted to grab her like this kind of, 'There, got it.' I felt like I was inadequate and not enough on my own, so I saw (her as) this big, glorious thing, even though I knew her as a person, just a normal person."

He continued, "Who's famous when it comes to shower time, picking your nose, scratching you're a**? Everybody breaks down into mundanity and flesh."

Brand described Perry as "really lovely", but said his own insecurities contributed to the relationship's collapse.

"But she was really, really, really lovely," he shared. "It was my fault. I pushed to get married early because I felt inadequate and insecure and that I wasn't enough and that if I was married to her, I'd somehow be a better person and more important."

He also acknowledged placing an "unnecessary amount of pressure and strain" on the Dark Horse singer, who he noted was a "very young woman" at the time.

Brand went on to marry author Laura Gallacher in 2017, and the couple share three children.

Perry, 41, later became engaged to actor Orlando Bloom in 2019, however, the pair called off their engagement in 2025. They share one daughter.