Russell Brand's Scottish wife is said to be standing by him amid rape and sex assault allegations made against him. Laura Gallacher deleted her Instagram profile on Saturday ahead of the Dispatches documentary on Channel 4, which aired the claims.

Brand, 48, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse by four women which are said to have taken place between 2006 and 2013. He has denied all the accusations made against him.

But friends say his pregnant partner Laura is supporting him amid the allegations. One told the MailOnline: "What Russell did was firmly in the past.

They added: "Of course it isn't easy but they are determined to get through this."

The 36-year-old is a 'mummy blogger' and author of parenting book, The Joy Journal For Magical Everyday Play. She is said to be 'kind natured' and happy to stay out of the limelight, despite coming from a high profile family.

She wiped her Instagram on Saturday, ahead of claims against her husband being broadcast on Channel 4.

Her sister, TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher, 47, also publicly backed her brother-in-law and sister by re-posting Brand's video response along with a giant red love heart emoji.

But she removed it shortly after the full extent of the allegations were revealed. She shared the two minute clip where he denied what were described as 'very serious criminal allegations' made against him on Instagram.

But around an hour after the claims were published, the former Sky Sports presenter removed it from her 'stories' on the social media platform.

Kirsty has so far refused to comment on the matter.

Brand and Laura live in a stunning £3 million river-side thatched house near Henley in Oxfordshire.

On Friday night, Russell released a statement saying: "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 community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn't be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel.

"But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, often very serious allegations that I absolutely refute. These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I've written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous.

"Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that. Then almost too transparent, and I'm being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?"

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