‘He swapped a tonne of heroin for a load of girls’: Andrew Sach’s granddaughter Georgina Baillie says Russell Brand’s problem is he is ‘addicted to sex’ and reveals ‘Sachsgate’ scandal drove wedge between her and her grandfather
- Georgina had a relationship with Brand which led to the ‘Sachsgate’ scandal
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Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter Georgina Baillie said today Russell Brand’s problem is ‘he is addicted to sex the way some people are addicted to drink and drugs’.
Georgina had a three-year relationship with Brand which led to the notorious ‘Sachsgate’ scandal when Brand left vulgar messages on the Fawlty Towers actor’s answer machine, bragging of his sex with Georgina.
She says it drove a wedge between her and her famous grandfather and their relationship never recovered after the prank call, which she blames for accelerating his decline into ill health.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Georgina, now 38, said: ‘My grandfather was horrified by that phone call, and he never really got over it. What happened broke our relationship.’
Speaking of the rape and sexual assault claims Brand now faces, Georgina said: ‘To be honest I haven’t seen the Dispatches programme yet, but I’ve heard snippets and I will watch it.
Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter Georgina Baillie (pictured) said today Russell Brand is ‘addicted to sex’
Georgina had a three-year relationship with Brand, who she said never was inappropriate with her
‘All I can say is that Russell never raped me, and he was never inappropriate with me.
‘But I think the problem is Russell was addicted to sex like some people are addicted to drink and drugs – I don’t think what he did was right, but he wasn’t well, he was addicted to sex.
‘He basically swapped a tonne of heroin for a load of girls who were throwing themselves at him and if he has done anything wrong, he needs to acknowledge it and make amends.
READ MORE: Met cops probe sex assault claim against Russell Brand as woman comes forward to report 2003 Soho attack – as star’s ‘Bipolarisation’ tour is postponed
‘In situations like this you are going to have people coming forward and trying to make a name for themselves.
‘But there are also going to be people with a genuine complaint, and they need to come forward, I would encourage them to.’
Of claims that Brand ‘groomed’ a 16-year-old school girl, Georgina said: ‘If one of these complaints is 16, then that is a bit icky because he was 30 and that’s very thin ice, and I’m sure looking back on it now is probably very ashamed that he manipulated her.
‘I know he was getting so many offers from girls, and he quit heroin to directly replace it with girls, that was his new addiction.’
Georgina went on: ‘I think though he has changed now, he has children, daughters and that will have changed him.
‘I hope that if he did something wrong, he will look to make amends for anything that happened.
‘At the time I knew him it was a really wild period of my life my parents had just got divorced, I turned to drink and drugs and then met Russell through friends.
‘I wanted to have sex and it was a friend with benefits thing – we saw each other maybe no more than ten times ever and I was impressed by him.
‘I was 20 years old, I was a groupie and I remember watching him on Big Brother and thinking he was so fit, a friend had his number and I jumped on it but I wouldn’t do that now.’
After the pair’s relationship came the notorious ‘Sachsgate’ scandal when Brand left vulgar messages on Andrew Sach’s (pictured) answer machine, bragging of his sex with Georgina
Georgina says that while she doesn’t regret meeting Brand and that their sex was consensual, she does bitterly regret the fall out with her grandfather – who played Manuel in the 1970s classic comedy – that caused a bitter fallout lasting eight years.
She said Sachs was also furious that Georgina a former member of dance group The Satanic Sluts decided to kiss and tell about Brand.
‘I don’t regret meeting Russell; I was young and impressionable but what I do regret is the effect it had on the relationship with my grandfather,’ she said.
‘OK I was a bit wild at the time but the way I behaved really embarrassed him.
‘He and my grandmother were from a different era and here they were seeing what their granddaughter got up.
‘Granddad stopped talking to me because of what happened, and I didn’t see him for a long time, it must have been around eight years.
‘The first time I saw him was just before he died when he was suffering from dementia. I tried to repair the relationship with flowers and letters but he was understandably very angry.’
Georgina revealed it was Andrew’s wife, fellow actor Melody Sachs, who arranged the meeting at actors’ home Denville Hall, near Harrow shortly before he died in 2016 aged 86.
Blinking back tears the dancer now turned painter said: ‘Grandma was a very interesting lady, and she decided it was ok to speak with him again.
‘She allowed him to see me, and it was really lovely but afterwards she gave me a bollocking saying that I had put the family through a lot of shit.
‘She blamed me for what happened, I did get to say goodbye to my grandad, but I had no idea if he was lucid or not and knew who I was.
‘I apologised to him again for embarrassing him, I looked into his eyes and told him again how sorry I was for everything.
Russell Brand leaves the Troubabour Wembley Park theatre in north-west London after performing a comedy set on Saturday
‘I think he heard me, I can’t be sure but there seemed to be still a little bit of him left in there.’
Georgina described for almost ten years after the Sachsgate scandal he life spiralled into a hedonistic world of drink and drugs – and at one point she herself was the victim of sex attack.
READ MORE: Russell Brand news LIVE: Comedian’s jokes about raping a woman emerge amid allegations of sexual assault – and claims that he sent a ‘BBC car’ to pick up teenage girl from secondary school
She said:’I went into a decade of addiction because of what happened, I was doing terrible things to get cocaine and I was drinking from the morning until the evening and I’m lucky to be alive.
‘I was really stupid; I didn’t think of the consequences and Russell made quite a bit of money afterwards because he used what happened on his subsequent Scandalized tour.
‘That hurt me, he wasn’t really seem to be taking it seriously and everyone was backing him and I was just a worthless whore but I know what it’s like to be a sex attack victim so if any woman has been attacked I encourage them to come forward.’
In 2018 Brand offered to pay for Georgina’s rehab after her addictions got the better of her and she had now been clean for almost four years.
She said: ‘He paid for my sixteen weeks treatment – I think it was his way of making amends for what he did.
‘We went into a room, and he just made a very real sincere apology to me for what happened, and I felt it was genuine and I was satisfied by that.
‘People may question why I don’t hate him more, but I can’t afford the luxury of resentments because it could trigger me back on to drink and drugs.
‘But I am there for any victim of sexual abuse because I have been there myself as I was hanging around with some seedy people who knew I would do anything for drugs.’
‘If there is anything I regret above all else it’s telling Russell who my grandfather was because it got involved him and I didn’t have to do that.’
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