Bear Grylls Defends Helping Baptise Russell Brand

Adventurer Bear Grylls has defended his controversial involvement with the baptism of comedian Russell Brand.

Bear helped to baptise the actor in 2024, months after allegations of historic sexual misconduct against Brand were made public in 2023 as part of a joint investigation between The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Brand denied the charges at the time and has since pleaded not guilty to a subsequent investigation and charges of rape and sexual assault.

He will face trial this autumn.

At the time, Brand said his baptism as part of a ceremony in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire helped him to “leave the past behind”.

He also shared an X post in May 2024 that read “Me, Bear Grylls, The River Thames and of course, The Holy Spirit.”

Bear has previously stood by his participation, telling The Times in 2025, “I try and live in a way that I never judge and I always try and love. And that principle doesn’t just apply to perfect people with perfect lives”.

In 2024, he told the Daily Mail: “Faith and spiritual moments in our lives are really personal, but it is a privilege to stand beside anyone when they express a humble need for forgiveness and strength from above.

“Friendships when we go through tough times are worth so much.”

Speaking to Metro recently, Bear was asked whether his feelings about the baptism had changed over the years, especially given Brand’s recent admission that he slept with a 16-year-old when he was 30.

The Celebrity Bear Hunt star said: “I think all our faith changes and evolves, and I’d also say I have many doubts as well. I really struggle with so much of it.

“But I don’t know, I think at heart, my faith says we’re connected together and we need each other, and not to judge people and to love people.”

He added that the phrase “What would Christ do?” has remained a mantra throughout his personal and professional life.

“I really try and keep that as that compass in my life. I don’t know. It’s like I say, I’m not super religious, but I do try and just start the day as a discipline on my knees and to say sorry, and to say thank you, and then to say help for the day ahead, and then I crack on with it,” he added.

Speaking on The Megyn Kelly Show in April 2026, Brand said of his previous sexual behaviour: “Consensual sex, actually, with a variety of people when there is a strong power differential, because there is when you’re a famous man that has the ability to attract women that I had at that time, I think involves exploitation.

“I think it is exploitative. I recognize that my sexual conduct in the past was selfish and I did not apply enough consideration, barely any, I suppose, really, to how that sex was affecting other people.”