LOS ANGELES: British comic Russell Brand told Katy Perry he was divorcing her by text message, the US pop star said in a new magazine interview, adding that she hasn’t heard from him since.
Brand issued a statement in December 2011 announcing that he had filed for divorce 14 months after the pair were wed in India, saying that “I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll remain friends.”
Perry, in an interview in the latest edition of Vogue magazine, which features her as its cover story, tells it differently.
“He’s a very smart man, and I was in love with him when I married him,” she told the magazine, adding: “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011.”
In court documents filed in Los Angeles, the British actor and comedian cited “irreconcilable differences” as a reason for divorce. The couple, married on October 23, 2010, after a whirlwind romance, had no children.
Perry said Brand’s in-your-face humor was “hysterical in some ways. Until he started making jokes about me and he didn’t know I was in the audience, because I had come to surprise him at one of his shows.
She added: “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.
“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.”
Brand, 38, a former drug addict with a reputation as a womanizer, found fame as a comedian and later as a TV and radio presenter in Britain before starring in hit Hollywood films “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek.”
Perry, 28, is best known for hit songs, “Teenage Dream,” California Gurls,” and “I Kissed a Girl.” Her debut album “One of the Boys” garnered two Grammy nominations, and her second record “Teenage Dream” was given six Grammy nods.
