Hugh Grant makes rare jokes about the 1995 sex workers scandal on The View

Hugh Grant laughed at his infamous 1995 sex scandal with US talk show hosts The view on Thursday (March 16).

Grant was arrested by Los Angeles Police Department for engaging in “lewd behavior” with a sex worker named Divine Brown in a public place. He was in a long-term relationship with actor/model Liz Hurley at the time.

At The viewPresenter Sunny Hostin asked the 62-year-old actor about his campaigns against the British tabloids.

“Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, he’s just bitter because he got arrested with a hooker in 1995,'” Grant said, to roaring laughter from the hosts and studio audience.

Hostin’s co-host Whoopi Goldberg interjected, “But guess what, really, who doesn’t?”

The actor then continued, “But actually it had nothing to do with it because that was never revealed by tabloids. It was that the damn police gave everyone the information. It had nothing to do with that.”

“These big newspaper owners – largely non-taxpaying newspaper owners – live above the law and invade the privacy of people whose children are killed in a traffic accident or whatever to get the sensational article,” he said.

“No one dares take them on in Britain because they are so afraid of them, especially the politicians. That’s why politicians, really in my country, are chosen by the press… That’s what my campaign is about.”

Grant’s arrest came a year after he rose to fame Four weddings and one death, and he later called the incident a moment of “madness.” He’s rarely addressed it in the decades since.

In a statement at the time, Grant wrote: “I’ve hurt people I love and embarrassed people I work with. I’m more sorry for both than I can ever say.”

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The now defunct News from all over the world Brown reportedly paid $100,000 for her story, which included her allegation that Grant told her, “I’ve always wanted to sleep with a black woman. That’s my fantasy.”

When Hurley finally broke her silence two months after Grant’s arrest, she said that “she felt shot” when she heard that he had sex with a sex worker.

Grant was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and attend an AIDS awareness program.

The actor was recently criticized for his “painful” red carpet interview with Ashley Graham at the Oscars, which the model has since addressed.