Katy Perry was onstage in Oxfordshire, England, on July 1 when she reportedly made a joke about her ex that now reads very differently. According to Page Six, which cited Bang Showbiz, the singer was leading the crowd through an interactive game in which fans acted out spotting an ex. Then she added a line of her own.
“I hope my ex isn’t here. He should be in jail.”
She did not say a name on that stage, according to the report. She did not need to. Her only ex-husband is Russell Brand, and Oxfordshire sits in his home country.
Katy Perry Jokes About Russell Brand During Performance in England
Page Six describes the remark as a joke aimed at a British audience. The game was a light, participatory bit of the show, the kind of crowd moment that fills a few minutes between songs. Perry turned it into a jab that landed months before a London courtroom handed down its verdict.
Neither camp has said anything about it. Reps for Brand and Perry did not respond to Page Six’s requests for comment on Wednesday. Perry has offered no clarification on what she meant or whom she meant. The joke stands on its own.
Stage humor about an ex usually stays cheap and safe. A wink, a groan, a crowd that laughs along. Hers had an edge that the news has since sharpened.
Brand Convicted of Rape and S*xual Assault Charges
Brand, 51, was convicted last week in a London court of one count of rape and three counts of s*xual assault. The case involved six accusers. On Monday he was sentenced to 10 years and six months.
Page Six previously reported that he is being held at HMP Wandsworth in London. His solicitor, Kally Sahota, told the outlet he will stay there for the next few weeks before a transfer to a different prison.
Brand married Laura Gallacher in 2017. They have three children together.
Perry’s Past Descriptions of Their Controlling Relationship
Perry and Brand were married from 2010 to 2012. A year after the split, she spoke to Vogue about the marriage, and her account was blunt. She described him as controlling and said he did not like the atmosphere of her being the boss on tour.
Her read on it, as she gave it then, was that he wanted an equal at first and then could not handle one once he had her. She told the magazine she had felt responsible for the marriage ending before deciding it was beyond her. She said she had moved on.
Twelve years later, a crowd game in Oxfordshire suggests the marriage still sits close enough to the surface to come out in a punchline. Nobody outside Katy Perry knows what was behind it. Jokes about an ex are rarely only jokes, though. They are often the version of a story someone can say out loud to thousands of strangers, with the laugh doing the work of keeping it light. The details of the case against Brand do not involve Perry, and nothing in the reporting connects them. Her line simply arrived first.
Since then, Perry has built a very different life. She shares a daughter with her ex-fiancé Orlando Bloom, and she has been dating former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since July 2025.
Brand is in Wandsworth for now, waiting on a transfer.
Sources: Page Six
