Russell: “Being a dad should come in instalments”

Russell Brand opens up about the responsibility of being a father and the secret to a successful second marriage

A she cradled his ten-month-old daughter Mabel while out with wife Laura Gallacher last week, Russell Brand looked a world away from his partying days.

And the 42-year-old comedian – who recently joked about Mabel, saying she was “beautiful, vindictive and vicious” – admits in his new book, Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions, that he could have done with a gentler transition into his new life.

He said, “The change from not having a baby to having a baby is too radical to be taken in one almighty leap. It should be handled in instalments. I’ve heard new fathers say, ‘I never knew such love was in me,’ but I’ve always known, I just wasn’t sure what to do with it.”

After reportedly seeing each other on and off since 2007, Russell and blogger and designer Laura, 30 – whose sister is TV presenter Kirsty – started dating in 2015 and married this summer in Henley-on-thames.

And Russell reveals he was very involved during Mabel’s birth last year – even jumping in the birthing pool.

Reliving the events in real time in his book, he says, “We use an app to measure the contractions, but in our room the magical intimacy remained. Real specialness. I find myself frozen in astonishment. We get to the hospital and Laura and I are both disappointed that the ceremonial atmosphere of our room has been replaced with the sterile hospital. I feel really pi**ed off that we’ve driven away from Eden to what feels like a barren environment. I climb into the birthing pool with Laura. She [Mabel] doesn’t cry, but we do.”

Russell – who has battled drug and sex addiction in the past – was famed for his countless flings with celebrities, including Ferne Mccann, Geri Horner and Jemima Khan. He was married to singer Katy Perry for 14 months before they split in 2012, with Katy later revealing he’d ended their marriage by text.

But after so much romantic upheaval, he is full of praise for his second wife, revealing, “Laura, my serene kind and thoughtful girlfriend who supports and takes care of me with such grace... I am honest, not stupid, I don’t tell my girlfriend every fleeting thought I have, no one should be subjected to that. She is startlingly capable of ignoring my creative outpourings, so we might be OK.”

Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions is out now