“I can’t actually find the verse,” Russell Brand told Piers Morgan during their April 24, 2026 interview, after Morgan asked him to identify the Bible passage he’d been reading at a court hearing.
Brand said it was in Isaiah, then spent roughly 90 to 120 seconds turning pages and muttering. Morgan waited without speaking, occasionally glancing at the camera. Brand eventually read from Isaiah 12, a different passage from the one he’d sought.
The Bible had accompanied Brand to a February 24 hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court. An officer took it from him until the proceedings ended.
Bear Grylls baptized Brand in the River Thames in 2024, after allegations against Brand surfaced in 2023. Brand has presented his Christian conversion as a break with his past and subsequently published How to Become a Christian in 7 Days through Tucker Carlson Books.
On April 26, Brand returned to the question in a follow-up video. He showed a marked page and identified Isaiah 43:18–19 as the passage he’d intended to read, saying the pressure of the interview circumstances had made it difficult to find.
Brand read, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” In Isaiah 43, God promises restoration after judgment and exile; the words can also speak to personal renewal.
The interview and follow-up came before Brand’s November 5 conviction on 1 count of rape and 3 counts of sexual assault involving incidents from 1999 to 2009. Morgan subsequently reshared the interview exchange and questioned the sincerity of Brand’s devotion in his commentary.