Life imitating art. Katy Perry first met ex-husband Russell Brand while filming a romantic scene for his 2010 film, Get Him to the Greek.
“When he was filming Get Him to the Greek, I did a cameo with him. My scene called for me to make out with him,” the “Firework” singer told Glamour in 2010 about working with the British comedian two years earlier. “And on the way down the stairs after the scene, I was hopping like a bunny. I hop like a bunny when I’m happy — I get a bit childlike. He gives me the Christmas Eve jitters.”
While the scene was ultimately cut from the movie — with Perry explaining to MTV in June 2010 that “it seemed too … literal” if they included the kiss — their interaction gave her the courage to make the first move when Brand was onstage at the VMAs the following year. “I was 25, 30 feet away from him. And I threw the bottle straight at him. Hit him smack dab on the head,” Perry told Esquire in July 2010. “Can you imagine the horrible feeling he had, when he was used to getting everything he wanted? I was like, ‘You’ve met your match.’”
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star reflected on the moment in an interview with Metro around the same time: “I was really annoyed but when she came up to me she was so mouthy, smart and cocky, it made me really interested. … I didn’t feel like I had a choice. It didn’t feel like a decision. It was just really natural. It just felt like we were mates.”
After a whirlwind romance, the duo announced their engagement in January 2010, just four months after they began dating, and tied the knot during a Hindu ceremony in India in October of that year. “[Marriage is] at once the most mundane and spectacular thing in the world,” Brand told Details magazine in March 2011. “There are a lot of areas where I’ve simply relinquished decision-making. It really does make my mates laugh, though.”
However, their relationship seemingly ended just as quickly as it began, with the England native announcing in December 2011 that they had decided to call it quits after just over one year of marriage. “Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage,” Brand said in a statement to Us Weekly at the time. “I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll remain friends.”
In July 2012, the Arthur star explained that while he “loved [Perry] so much,” he ultimately realized that their relationship just wasn’t working. “I was really, really in love with her, but it was difficult to see each other,” he said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show at the time. “We were together when it was right to be together, and when it wasn’t we worked it out … It was a lovely relationship … It mostly didn’t work for practical reasons … We did work it out, she’s happy, I’m happy.”
The American Idol judge, meanwhile, was less kind about the end of their relationship, telling Vogue in June 2013 that Brand ended things over text. “At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness,’” Perry said at the time.
The twosome did eventually find their happy endings, though. In 2015, Brand reconciled with his on-again, off-again partner, Laura Gallagher. He and the Scottish blogger tied the knot two years later and they share two daughters: Mabel, 5, and Peggy, 3. Perry, for her part, began dating Orlando Bloom in January 2016 and the Lord of the Rings star proposed on Valentine’s Day 2018. They welcomed a baby girl, Daisy Dove, in August 2020.
Keep scrolling to relive Brand and Perry’s whirlwind romance:
