Piers Morgan has revealed the nickname Katy Perry had for her ex-husband Russell Brand shortly after the pair ended their marriage.
Brand, 48, has been at the center of allegations of rape and sexual assault from four women - one of whom was just 16 at the time - which he has vehemently denied.
The claims were made public by The Times newspaper as well as a Channel 4 Dispatches special which aired on Saturday, September 16, alleging that the comedian and actor assaulted four women between 2006 and 2013, at a time when he was working for Channel 4, the BBC, and starring in Hollywood films.
Brand had preempted the release of the article and TV show by sharing his denial on social media, refuting all of the claims.
Brand's ex-wife Perry, 38, has yet to speak out publicly regarding the allegations, but broadcaster Morgan, 58, has spoken out to reveal the nickname she told him she had for her former husband.
The couple had met on the set of the movie Get Him To The Greek and got married in October 2010 at the Ranthambore Tiger Sanctuary in Rajasthan, India .
Just 14 months later their marriage ended, with Brand reportedly sending Perry a text informing her he had filed for divorce, which was finalized in 2012.
Writing in his latest column for The Sun, Morgan revealed that he had approached Perry shortly after the couple's split, where she revealed the sinister nickname she had for Brand.
Detailing how the interaction went down at a 2013 Vanity Fair party, Morgan revealed that he had tried to book her for an interview but she told him she was "not ready yet".
When he asked why, she allegedly responded: "Because you’ll get the truth out of me, and I’m just not ready to tell you the truth! In fact, I’m not sure I’m ready to admit the truth to myself."
He continued: "Then she laughed. 'You Brits are all the same, so damn confident… Trouble is, I find that irresistible. I love Brits… Well, not all of them – not Rasputin, obviously.'"
Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic and holy man, known for helping toppled Tsar Nicholas II in the 1917 Russian Revolution, as well as for the controversy surrounding him, including his sexual escapades.
While Morgan never found out the "truth" Perry had alluded to, in a Vogue interview the same month she told the publication: "I felt a lot of responsibility for it (the marriage) ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day."
While some would balk at being compared to Rasputin, who is a controversial figure to this day, Morgan claims Brand was "thrilled" at the moniker.
He writes: "Brand was thrilled when I told him what Katy had said, exclaiming: 'GRIGORI RASPUTIN! He was a pretty powerful bloke, he could manipulate folks with his eyes.
'I like Rasputin... he was all right, wasn’t he... a mad monk with magical, mystical powers, having it off with everyone, drinking and getting into fights.' We both laughed."
Brand has denied the allegations made against him, stating on his YouTube channel: "I've received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email. One from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel."
He went on to question the motivations behind what he perceives as a "coordinated media attack," maintaining that during his "time of promiscuity ... the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.
"And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?"
Moreover, the Essex-born entertainer alleged that there are witnesses who could "directly contradict" the allegations, claiming: "Now, I don’t wanna get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they’re working very closely together."