The celebrity dads who took on Russell Brand: Rod Stewart and Bob Geldof hit back at comic over lewd comments about their daughters – with matriarch Sharon Osbourne also joining the fray

When Russell Brand became a father he said his worst nightmare would be his daughter going on to date someone just like him. 

Yet for Rod Stewart and Bob Geldof, this nightmare was their reality, with their daughters linked to the comic at the height of his fame. 

Brand – who this week was sentenced to ten-and-a-half years behind bars after being found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault – used to famously boast about his sexual appetite and ambitions, often making crude jokes about his conquests.

In 2006, Kimberly Stewart was the subject of one such quip, when the comic took to the stage at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards to allege he’d bedded the socialite. 

But he was left quivering after her father responded with fury. 

During the ceremony, Brand, 51, was awarded the Most Stylish gong and dedicated the win to Stewart, saying: ‘Here’s to Rod Stewart who had a go at me earlier this year for too much womanising… But then again I did have a go on his daughter.’

Stewart, 81, waited until he was called on stage a short while later to issue his humiliating rebuttal. 

As he picked up his award for Outstanding Musical Achievement, Stewart publicly addressed Brand, saying: ‘You went with my daughter, did you? Russell, stand up.’

Brand seemingly lost all his bravado and could be heard sheepishly mumbling: ‘I took her out for one evening.’

A furious Stewart then asked if Brand had behaved himself on said evening, leading the former Big Brother host to backtrack and say: ‘I never touched that girl.’

‘F****** right you didn’t,’ Stewart snapped. ‘You mustn’t come up here and boast. I speak here as a father.’

Brand reportedly attempted to make amends following the tense moment, with the pair seen conversing following the awards ceremony.

Stewart later told the Evening Standard: ‘He might be a bit of a player but he shouldn’t boast. I never did. Russell’s been a bit timid since I had my say.’

It wasn’t the first time Brand had a dressing-down from a date’s father, with Geldof calling him out earlier in the year. 

Brand had been romantically linked to Geldof’s daughter Peaches, then 17, with reports suggesting the pair had briefly been involved. 

Neither confirmed a relationship, and Peaches indicated that things had not gone beyond flirting. 

But Brand reignited speculation when he mocked Geldof at the NME Awards, which he hosted.  

When introducing Geldof to the stage to accept the Hero of the Year award, Brand mocked his name, calling him ‘Sir Bobby Gandalf’.

Coming up to accept his prize, Geldof furiously brushed past Brand before telling the audience: ‘Russell Brand, what a c***.’

The Boomtown Rats star’s remarks were met with laughs and applause, as the controversial comedian looked unimpressed.

Brand later took back the microphone and congratulated Geldof before hitting back with a dig of his own.

‘Bob Geldof there, obviously an amazing man to whom we have a lot to be grateful, not in calling me a c*** of course,’ Brand said.

‘Really it’s no surprise that he’s such an expert on famine, he has after all been dining out on I Don’t Like Mondays for 30 years,’ he added.

Brand was later criticised by Geldof’s eldest daughter, Fifi, in 2015, after the comedian joked about using drugs at a fundraising event for a charity that specialises in treating drug and alcohol addictions.

Fifi called Brand an ‘unfunny b*****d’ and an ‘uber-douche extraordinaire’ after he joked about addiction at Focus 12’s fundraising event.

The event was held a year after Peaches died at the age of 25 from a heroin overdose. Their mother Paula Yates tragically died the same way in 2000.

Sharon Osbourne condemned Brand for going after the loved ones of his alleged flings, speaking out against the comic in 2023 when he was first accused of rape and assault. 

She said on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show: ‘The only thing I can say about Russell Brand, is the two things I don’t like, was when he spoke about… one of them is a very good friend of ours, Kimberley Stewart, about what he had done to Kimberley Stewart in front of her father [Rod Stewart]. And then he did the same with Sir Bob Geldof.

‘You just don’t do that to people’s families, when that father is in the room. He’s done it twice now and that’s the thing that sticks with me.’

Her son Jack also spoke about his family’s history with Brand during the interview, admitting it was difficult to contemplate the allegations against someone they knew.

‘We’ve all known Russell going on 20 years,’ he said, adding that the comedian had done some ‘vulgar, outrageous, crazy things’ in the past.

But he said that knowing someone personally did not mean they were incapable of serious wrongdoing.

And Brand also once took aim at the grandfather of one of his lovers. 

In 2008, Brand and Jonathan Ross left sexually explicit messages on actor Andrew Sachs’s answerphone about his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, with whom Brand had been involved.

In one, Ross shouted: ‘He f***** your granddaughter.’ In another, Brand told Sachs: ‘But it was consensual, and she wasn’t menstrual, it was consensual lovely sex. It was full of respect I sent her a text. I’ve asked her to marry me, Andrew Sachs.’ 

The incident became known as Sachsgate and caused a major broadcasting scandal that prompted the resignations of Brand, Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas and head of compliance Dave Barber. Ross was suspended without pay for three months.

The BBC was fined £150,000 by media regulator Ofcom who described the broadcast of the messages as ‘gratuitously offensive, humiliating and demeaning’.

But it also came at great personal cost for Georgina: it caused her relationship with her beloved grandfather to break down completely.

She did not see or speak to him for eight years – only finally seeing Sachs one final time, to apologise for the scandal, shortly before he died in 2016 aged 86.

Georgina also said that Sachsgate contributed to her developing an addiction to drugs and alcohol, telling the Daily Mail: ‘They [Brand and Ross] were slut shaming.

‘It was bullying towards my grandfather. Regardless of if I’m the biggest whore in the whole world, it doesn’t matter. It’s still bullying. It was an in joke between the two of them little idiots.’

She revealed that Brand later apologised to her for his conduct and even paid for her to attend a rehab in 2018 in Staffordshire, where she spent six months. 

In 2016, Brand became a father himself when he had daughter Mabel with wife Laura Gallacher. They have since had Peggy, eight, and a son, three. 

Speaking ahead of his 2017 comedy tour Re:Birth, which focused on his life as a father, he said: ‘What am I going to tell my daughter about conformity and responsibility? What happens if she grows up to be like me or, worse, date someone like me?’

He also questioned: ‘How do we make sense of the madness of our lives once we become parents?’

Asked if having a child changed his perception on the world, he added: ‘Do you know, in some ways I do. That’s a good observation. It’s a wonderful experience being a dad!’

Last week, Brand was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. 

He is now facing a fresh wave of allegations spanning a decade, including claims that he ignored women’s pleas to stop during sex and exploited his celebrity status to pursue young fans. 

In a further investigation by The Times and The Sunday Times, six more women have come forward with accounts of alleged sexual assault, coercive behaviour and humiliation at the hands of the former Hollywood star.

The latest allegations against Brand include claims that he had sex with one woman without her consent before later apologising, while another alleges he continued having sex with her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop because she was in pain.

A third woman also claims the comedian grabbed her by the throat and sexually assaulted her in a hotel room, while another alleges he attempted to pull her into a disabled lavatory at a London venue as recently as 2015.

The latest accusations emerged after Brand was jailed for more than a decade for rape and sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court earlier this week.

The allegations, which have not been tested in court, could not previously be published because of concerns that they might prejudice the criminal proceedings against him.

Most of the six women first contacted journalists following the joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches in September 2023, which prompted a Metropolitan Police investigation.