Russell Brand (2009 – 2012)
Russell Brand and Katy Perry started dating in 2009 and became engaged four months later, when they had a traditional Hindu wedding in India. The marriage lasted 14 months, with Brand infamously ending the relationship through a text on New Year’s Eve. (The exchange was documented in Perry’s documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me.)
Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage. I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll remain friends,” he said in a statement at the time, per People. In a Howard Stern Interview, he talked about the end of the marriage. “She’s young, successful, and dedicated,” he said. “You can’t fully understand it until you do it. I was really into the idea of marriage and having children.”
“I don’t want anything to hurt her. She’s younger than me, she’s a young woman and she’s beautiful and she’s sensitive and I care about her deeply … I don’t want to be too glib. She’ll read it and she’ll be sad and I don’t want that,” Brand added.
In an interview with Vogue in 2013, Perry revealed the grounds of the marriage. “At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness.’ He didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting,” Perry said at the time.
“I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day. I let go and I was like, ‘This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me.’ So I have moved on from that.”
