Katy Perry: I helped Russell Brand curb his drug & sex addiction (new pics)

Katy Perry says she tamed bad-boy fiance Russell Brand, who was a sex
and drug addict when they met. (Photos/Esquire)

Katy Perry, who's topless on the new cover of Esquire, says she helped fiance Russell Brand curb his longtime sex, drug and alcohol addiction.

How? By refusing to sleep with him on their first date.

'HE WAS A PROSTITUTE'

"[Russell] used to basically be a professional prostitute," says Perry, 25. "Now he's not. So he's an extremist which can be both good and bad. I always needed someone stronger than me. And I am, like, a f*cking strong elephant of a women. I say that hopefully in the humblest way I can."

Brand agrees that Katy's strong, magnetic personality made him grow up.

“Regardless of what happens [with Katy], I am unlikely to be satisfied with calamitous promiscuity of the preceding five or six years,” he confessed. Russell, previously a notorious womanizer, has even said he's ready to settle down and have kids with Perry.

'I MADE HIM WAIT FOR SEX'

Interestingly, Katy made the first move on Brand by throwing a bottle at him at an afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2009.

"[It] hit him smack dab on the head," she recalls. "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.' "

After denying him sex despite their mutual initial attraction, Perry demanded that Russell take her out on a date and treat her like a lady. A week later, the couple took off on a vacation to Thailand. By December 2009, they were engaged.

Brand, 35, surprised Katy by proposing to her in India by getting down on one knee. He even organized a fireworks display and a painted elephant to accompany the proposal. They are planning to wed in October 2010.

BRAND HAS BIPOLAR DISORDER & HAD BULIMIA

Despite calling themselves "two divas in one house," Perry insists they're a good match.

Brand is British comedian and actor who has spoken openly about his addictive personality, admitting he has bipolar disorder, suffered from bulimia and cut himself.

Brand, a former heroin and sex addict and a recovering alcoholic, was arrested 11 times on drug-related charges and initially stopped doing drugs in 2002 at the insistence of his agent.

Russell continues to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings to keep his addictions in check.

Katy says she has she tried drugs but has never been an addict. Perry, who topped Maxim's Hot 100 list this year, is a fitness fanatic who works out regularly and follows an organic diet.

Perry's second album, Teenage Dream, drops in August.

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