Katy Perry And Russell Brand Weren't Actually Married For Very Long

For a brief period of time during Katy Perry's "California Gurls" era, she and Russell Brand were a bi-continental power couple. Perry was an American pop star whose colorful wardrobe resembled a pick 'n' mix counter; Brand was a British comedian who dressed like a wannabe rock star.

A decade after their marriage ended, Brand and Perry were in different places professionally and personally. While Perry was judging "American Idol," Brand had done a rebrand, trading appearances in raunchy comedies such as "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek" for a gig hosting a show on Rumble, home to right-wing figures including Donald Trump Jr. and Andrew Tate. 

Brand and Perry both remarried. The former wed fashion label owner Laura Gallacher in 2017, and the couple went on to welcome two children, daughters Peggy and Mabel. Brand confessed that his promiscuous past made embracing monogamy a challenge, telling The Times that he has to remind himself, "If you ever did anything, you realize that would destroy your whole life," when he finds himself attracted to someone. As for Perry, she and her fiancé, "Lord of the Rings" star Orlando Bloom, welcomed their daughter Daisy in 2020. Speaking about his relationship with Perry in a 2023 Flaunt interview, Bloom confessed, "Sometimes things are really, really, really, challenging. I won't lie." For Perry and Brand, their marriage could also be a bit like the treacherous trek to Mordor: an unforgettable adventure, but one they likely don't want to replicate.

When Katy Perry and Russell Brand filmed a kissing scene for the 2010 movie "Get Him to the Greek," sparks flew. "On the way down the stairs after the scene, I was hopping like a bunny. I hop like a bunny when I'm happy — I get a bit childlike," Perry told Glamour. Brand would later praise his wife's own kissing capabilities on "The View," according to Metro. While describing the "I Kissed a Girl" singer's cherry Chapstick-tasting lips, he said, "They are a conduit to paradise, a tunnel to another world. They are redemption, salvation, glory, poetry."

Perry told Esquire that Brand's interest in her was piqued when she lobbed a bottle at him at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and refused to sleep with him after they hung out that same night, according to the Daily Mail. "Can you imagine the horrible feeling he had when he was used to getting everything he wanted?" she said. Brand revealed that he found the bottle toss irritating, but told Metro, "When she came up to me she was so mouthy, smart and cocky, it made me really interested."

The couple jetted off to Thailand together one week after that explosive exchange, and after just four months of dating, they got engaged during a trip to India in January 2010. They would return to the country to tie the knot that October. But a mere 14 months later, their marriage was over.

Katy Perry and Russell Brand's marriage slammed into an iceberg on New Year's Eve in 2011. Months earlier, Brand had compared their relationship to the Titanic, so apparently it was doomed from the moment they disembarked together. "There are a lot of things you have to amend to be in a monogamous relationship," he told Details. "I've had to readdress everything and start buying deck furniture. On the Titanic.'"

According to Perry, their marriage sunk when Brand delivered it an ice-cold final blow. "Let's just say I haven't heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me," she said in a 2013 Vogue interview. The "Roar" singer told Marie Claire that she licked her wounds by making her fingers lick-able. "I was, like, just eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos and drinking, and that's it," she recalled. She also shared one of her and Brand's marital issues: He was pushing her to get pregnant, and she was suspicious of his motives. "I think it was a way of control," she said.

When Brand spoke about their split on "The Howard Stern Show," he compared his candy costume-wearing ex to an insipid snack. "If you've been on a diet of rice for a while and suddenly Willy Wonka asked you to take over the factory," he said, according to MTV, "you'd be kicking over barrels of candy and swimming in a chocolate river."