GB News presenter Andrew Pierce has slammed claims his co-host Beverley Turner didn’t know he would call out her support of Russell Brand.
Allegations against the comedian and Get Him to the Greek actor, 48, were revealed over the weekend, with four women accusing him of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.
Soon after Turner, 49, wrote on social media that Brand was being ‘attacked’ by ‘establishment media’, a view she doubled down on when appearing on air on Monday.
During a tense discussion with Pierce, 62, the journalist said his co-presenter’s comments had been ‘shameful’.
Now he has criticised claims she’s made suggesting she had no clue he would be challenging her views.
Sharing a video of their exchange on X, formerly Twitter, Turner wrote she ‘didn’t know’ that her co-host ‘was going to do this today’.
‘I knew we’d be discussing this topic of Russell Brand of course, but I wasn’t prepared for the personal onslaught which is why I look caught off-guard.
‘To fully understand my position which is difficult to articulate under these sort of circumstances, please read this piece that I wrote. Thanks,’ she added, while sharing a link to an opinion piece, in which she wrote the ‘current trial by media is grotesque’.
However, Pierce hit back, writing that what she said was ‘just not true’.
‘Beverly Turner was told in explicit terms I would challenge on air her deeply offensive defence of Russell Brand who she describes as her “hero”,’ he said.
‘I’ve been overwhelmed with supportive messages for calling her out.’
In her opinion piece, Turner also wrote about how she ‘believed in a society where we can defend someone’s current character whilst also being willing and able to condemn historic illegal actions’.
During the on-air discussion yesterday, Pierce called out Turner for dismissing the four-year investigation by The Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 ‘in a single Tweet’.
‘Don’t you think before you say someone’s a hero, you should establish whether these very serious allegations are true?,’ he said.
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‘Before I tweeted that, I had spoken to several sources close to Brand, close to The Times,’ she responded. ‘
I was confident that there is no smoking gun in this regard. I remain confident having watched the Dispatches.’
She added: ‘Of course everybody has the right to not be sexually assaulted. Anybody who has been sexually assaulted, my heart goes out to them. This happens every single day.’
Brand, who released a video on Friday denying the ‘very serious allegations’, has been accused by four alleged victims who claimed they were abused by him between 2006 and 2013.
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