Why did Matt Lucas and David Walliams fall out? Inside their relationship highs and lows

Despite working closely for decades, Lucas and Walliams’ friendship became strained during the Little Britain Live tour in 2005 and their tour of Australia in 2007.

David Walliams and Matt Lucas pictured in 2006

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The pair clashed backstage and were often at “loggerheads” over minor things, such as what kind of chocolate to request or arguments over Walliams’ facial hair, according to Lucas’ autobiography Little Me.

These disagreements occasionally escalated into screaming matches and shouting obscenities at each other, Lucas said.

After their second sketch show together, Come Fly With Me, the duo officially ended their professional partnership in 2011 and drifted apart for several years.

Lucas, 52, took swipes at Walliams in his autobiography, which was released in 2012, and Walliams did the same in his memoir, Camp David.

Lucas wrote: “Walliams has now sold so many children's books he can probably buy his own private jet, all decked out in pink, with a river inside it for him to swim up,” alluding to Walliams' multiple high-profile charity swims.

Walliams, meanwhile, said they were “very different people and probably want different things”, adding that their relationship was “over for the time being”.

The former best friends came to a truce in 2018 when their mutual friend Dale Winton died, with the pair though to have reconnected at his funeral. They publicly reunited at a fancy dress party in 2019 and, later that year, appeared in the Little Britain spin-off, Little Brexit.

They were criticised for their Little Britain characters

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Describing their reformed friendship in 2020, Lucas told The Sun: “What I can say is that David and I are the very best of friends and we speak or exchange messages every single day.

Last year, they launched the twice-weekly podcast Making A Scene, in which they interview their comedian friends and turn their lives into cinematic events.

The pair pictured with Russell Brand during a Comic Relief sketch of Little Britain

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One woman described her alleged encounter with Walliams, when she was 15, as a “sexual assault” while multiple women accused him of “grooming” them when they were teenagers.

The best-selling author and former Britain’s Got Talent judge said: “Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with.

“I realise I did not always take people’s feelings properly into account. That is something I regret. And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did.”

He added: “I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law, but I am devastated that some of the women I met 10 to 20 years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.”

One woman, named by ITV News and the Guardian as Jade, said she was 15 and Walliams was 36 when they met in August 2007 and he invited her to his house.

She claimed what happened to her there was “sexual assault” and “grooming”, adding: “It’s completely wrong in every way.”

The pair reconciled in 2019 (pictured in 2022) and launched a podcast

Matt Lucas/Instagram

Walliams strongly denied to the publications that he had any sexual contact with Jade, adding that he rejects any allegations of criminal activity and he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.

Another woman, named by the news organisations as Alex, alleged she was having sex with Walliams by the time she was 17. Asked how she feels about him now, she said: “I think I was groomed. 100%.”

Walliams told the publications he believed she was 18 at the time they had sex. His lawyers said the suggestion he groomed Alex is false and has caused him significant distress.

Another young woman, Lilly Creightmore, said she met Walliams when she was 18 at a live filming of Little Britain. She said she had a troubled home life so stayed with him in his flat, where she slept on the sofa.

She claimed he asked her to stay in his bed every night. She told the news organisations: “He would plead with me to share a bed with him and paw at me, trying to make me feel sorry for him.

“He definitely crossed the line physically in moments, when I was young, trying to coerce me into sleeping with him.”

Lawyers for Walliams said he saw her as a close friend and is mortified that she feels he was grooming her, which he denies. He also denies targeting her because she was young and vulnerable and insists he did not say or do anything inappropriate.