Bear Grylls helped baptise Russell Brand in the River Thames – how did we get here?

Bear Grylls helps to baptise Russell Brand. Photo: Instagram

Nick Hilton
© UK Independent

On the craggy Scottish coast, warmed only by the flickering flames of a campfire, Russell Brand, the comedian who would later face allegations of sexual assault, bares his soul. “When you stop drinking and stop taking drugs, you’re confronted with the nature of the problem,” he says, as the Hebridean wind tousles his man bun. “I was a disconnected person, certainly from any sense of higher purpose or God.” His confessor? A certain Bear Grylls.

This encounter – and foundation of a friendship – was broadcast on Grylls’ show Running Wild last summer, shortly before an extensive series of allegations were made against Brand. Fast-forward to this week, and the two men are making headlines, with Grylls playing a key part in Brand’s baptism in the River Thames. It is a strange development in the Bear Grylls story that started far more traditionally. He was born Edward in 1974, and his father was Sir Michael Grylls, the Conservative MP for Chertsey in Surrey. Grylls Senior’s parliamentary career was rocked in the mid-1990s during the “cash for questions” scandal that dogged John Major’s ailing premiership, and he stood down at the 1997 election. At the same time, his son – who had gone by the name of “Bear” since a child, presumably because, as with many posh Edwards, he was briefly “Teddy” – was recovering from a parachuting accident that ended his short career with the SAS.