Why Bear Grylls’ friends are so flabbergasted he’s become a spiritual mentor to Russell Brand
SiTTinG cross-legged with a crucifix nestling in his bronzed chest, russell Brand’s latest reinvention is a transformation for the ages. Gone is the whiskery alternative-looking geezer in a none-too-clean knitted beanie, spouting conspiracy theories for his devoted online subscribers.
This new Brand is scrubbed clean, appearing almost to glow with some sort of reflected saintliness.
it’s a long way from the peak of his first wave of success as a comedian 20 years ago, when Brand was the high priest of toxic masculinity — the nadir of which came with the Andrew sachs scandal, where he and cohost Jonathan ross brutally humiliated the comedian, leaving him explicit voicemails about his granddaughter live on Brand’s radio 2 show.
And today — let us not forget — Brand remains under investigation by the Met Police over a number of serious allegations of sexual assault stretching back years.
somehow, though, he has metamorphosed into a man who wants to talk about God dwelling in him, and who quotes verses from the Book of Galatians in the new Testament.
Cynics may think it’s all a publicity stunt — but to be fair, Brand has been increasingly musing about spirituality for some years.
now it seems that the very man who presented a comedy routine titled Messiah Complex in 2013 has found his very own John the Baptist.
step forward, survival expert, old etonian, Chief scout and committed Christian Bear Grylls. With his help, Brand has literally taken the plunge, revealing this week that he was baptised in the Thames, with Grylls, one of two friends who held him as he was immersed in its waters.
‘i want to thank Bear Grylls and my mate Joe, the two men that stood either side of me and flanked me for the baptism itself,’ Brand confirmed on social media. ‘Week one as a Christian has been amazing. The ceremony itself was incredible.’ ever verbose, he added he felt ‘changed, transitioned ... nourished and held’.
Brand has a riverside home in genteel Marlow in Buckinghamshire and it’s thought this is where the christening was conducted.
Friends of Grylls tell me that they were utterly agog that he was acting as a spiritual mentor to Brand. One schoolfriend let fly a string of astonished expletives at the news, before explaining: ‘it makes perfect sense when you view this as a faith issue. Anyone who repents is saved, and if you have strong belief like Bear then that is the only consideration. Only God judges! But i am a bit surprised.’
Grylls himself — a lifelong Christian — explained: ‘Faith and spiritual moments in our lives are really personal, but it is a privilege to stand beside anyone when they express a humble need for forgiveness and strength from above. Friendships when we go through tough times are worth so much.’
The bromance between the two men is rather striking.
They seem to have met last year when Brand took part in the national Geographic show running Wild with Bear Grylls, streamed on AppleTV+, where Brand mused about life, addiction and spirituality in the Hebrides while Grylls, one year his senior, nodded encouragement.
For all that onscreen support, Grylls’ friends tell me they were astonished that the relationship had carried on after filming.
But if you leave God out of it, then what Brand has also done is found himself a powerful mentor in Grylls. Over the past two decades, Grylls has created his own entity which sits somewhere between a cult of personality and a media brand.
Bear Grylls inc spans multiple TV shows, animated movies, books, two festivals, adventure camps, theme parks, a mental fitness app and coaching enterprise, Becoming X, which sells lessons in resilience to schools.
All are sold on his name and it makes Brand’s own narcissistic whinnying look like small potatoes. even Grylls’ involvement in two tax avoidance schemes and a couple of embarrassing TV fakery scandals haven’t impeded his rise.
He is now in Costa rica, where filming has started on Bear Hunt, a new netflix adventure format which will see him pursue celebrities, including Boris Becker and Mel B, through the rainforest. Holly Willoughby is to present.
it is big budget — security is supposedly costing £1 million alone — but then Grylls has what Brand does not: global reach, courtesy of his show running Wild — and respect. Awarded an OBe, he went to the Coronation, and to the Platinum Jubilee.
As Chief scout, he was only last month making ‘King’s scout investitures’ at Windsor Castle.
so what — beside God — has brought Brand and Grylls together? While both men are married with three children, there the similarities end.
edward Michael Grylls was — unlike his new chum — to the manor born. His father is sir Michael Grylls, a former Tory MP and ex-royal Marine Commando, and his mother is sally. His older sister Lara started calling him Bear when he was an infant, and the name stuck.
While Brand was raised in Grays, essex, Bear was sent to Ludgrove school where, he says, he bit another boy and drew blood, before being been thrashed by his father in front of the rest of the school as punishment.
As a young man, Brand had been initiated into sex by his father with two prostitutes in Hong Kong. Later, he was fired by his then employer MTV for impersonating Osama bin Laden. Bear, though, had moved onto a military career, in the reserves with 21 sAs from 1994 to 1997, before being posted to north Africa. He was seriously injured in a free fall parachuting accident in Kenya after his parachute failed to open, and broke his back.
Only 18 months later he climbed Mount everest, aged 23. His first TV documentary was in 2005, but his big break came a year later when discovery commissioned Man Vs Wild, which showed him surviving in different challenging parts of the world.
His macho style, sAs credentials and posh demeanour made it a hit. The apparently real peril was also a selling point.
Then in 2014, he started presenting running Wild which featured him going away with a celebrity. Those A listers included U.s. President Barack Obama and the actor Will Ferrell who famously ate reindeer eyeballs.
However, there are suggestions that the life-or-death challenges are not quite as dramatic as they appear.
There was a scandal in 2005 when it emerged that footage showing Grylls crossing what he described as a dangerous ravine in Man Vs Wild was carefully shot hiding the fact there was a tiny drop. A disclaimer was added later.
in 2007, it transpired Grylls had stayed in hotels during the filming of Born survivor. But Bear insists everything is as it seems, saying: ‘We’ve had a raft of incidents, and i’ve had a lot of close shaves.’
Alongside Grylls’ media career, he is a director of a dozen firms. All of his wealth — he’s said to be worth £20million — comes with tax liabilities.
in one interview, Grylls complained: ‘i find it demoralising to pay income tax at 40 per cent when i work really hard and spend a lot of time away from my family.’
in 2012, it was revealed that he was one of a number of investors in shipwreck schemes which allowed backers to claim tax relief. The Times reported that he had invested £749,000.
And in 2015, it emerged he was an investor in a green energy scheme that came under investigation by the taxman. The Future Fuels scheme, run by Future Capital Partners, was a tax efficient investment opportunity which was closed after FCP lost several tax cases.
GryLLs and wife shara live a multi-national life with three sons Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry. The couple own a Wiltshire farmhouse, plus a £3million apartment in Battersea Power station.
in addition, he spends four months of the year in switzerland — while also owning a 20-acre island off the coast of Wales where there are no phones and it is a seven-mile boat trip to the nearest mainland village.
you can see why the scouts leapt at the chance to have a star of Grylls’s stature as their Chief scout. This year, his latest fiveyear tenure expires and it seems an announcement of his departure is in the air.
A spokesman says they are ‘extremely proud’ of their association with Grylls and he’s inspired the movement ‘through a period of unprecedented growth’, before adding: ‘More information will be available later in the year about Bear’s next steps’ which makes it sound, very much, as if he is on his way out.
Perhaps his new chum russell Brand can advise him on the art of reinvention …