Russell Brand and wife Laura Gallacher‘s family is getting a little bigger — the duo are expecting their third child.
The comedian, 48, confirmed the news during an interview on the Thursday, June 29, episode of Steven Bartlett‘s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast. “You fell in love and you’ve got two children,” Bartlett, 30, said to Brand. “You’ve got a third on the way, around the corner. That’s a very special love you have found.”
Brand went on to detail the way his life has changed since he became a father. “It’s taught me there is a lot more important in this world than me,” he explained. “It taught me that love is real. It teaches you everything to become a father. All lessons are there.”
Gallacher, 36, and Brand became parents in November 2016 with the arrival of daughter Mabel, now 6. After tying the knot in 2017, the pair welcomed daughter Peggy, now 4, in July 2018.
During the interview, Brand also discussed his childhood and struggles with substance abuse. “My initial solution to feeling weak and disconnected and lonely and somehow silently brilliant was to try and become successful, was to try and become famous, was to try and have resources,” said the actor, who has been sober since 2002.
Asked what might have made him feel less alone in the world as a kid, Brand replied that he just wanted to be told he was worthy. “Now that I’m a dad — you can’t be a father to anyone else until you’re a father to yourself — [I think it would be] a sense that who you are is alright,” he told Bartlett. “You don’t know need to worry, you are enough, you are sufficient, we are going to be OK.”
Prior to marrying Gallacher, Brand was in a relationship with Katy Perry, whom he met in 2009. The duo tied the knot in October 2010, but Brand filed for divorce just over one year later. The twosome finalized their split in July 2012.
Brand later hinted that he and Perry, 38, ended their romance because of a disagreement about having kids. “I was really into the idea of marriage and having children,” he explained during a 2012 interview with Howard Stern, declining to share further details about the conversations they had. “I don’t want anything to hurt her.”
Perry went on to welcome daughter Daisy Dove, 2, with fiancé Orlando Bloom.
