David Walliams, U.K. comedian and author, accused of preying on teenage girls
British comedian and author David Walliams has been accused by multiple women of using his celebrity status to prey on them at a young age, often for sex, according to a three-year investigation by the Guardian and ITV News. Walliams has denied the allegations.
Walliams identified as initially-unnamed celebrity who tried to block allegations being published
Philip Drost · CBC News
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British comedian and author David Walliams has been accused by multiple women of using his celebrity status to prey on them at a young age, often for sex, according to a three-year investigation by the Guardian and ITV News.
Walliams has also been accused of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace during his time on the show Britain’s Got Talent, where he was a judge for 10 years, and at his former publisher HarperCollins, which has since dropped him.
Walliams has denied the allegations. Earlier this year, his lawyers took a case to the U.K.'s High Court in an effort to stop the Guardian and ITV News from publishing the claims and naming him in their reporting.
A judge rejected his injunction request last week, but protected his identity until late Monday.
That case was dismissed last week, meaning those claims could be shared. Walliams's legal team claimed that if those allegations were made public, he'd take his own life, according to a story by the BBC.
Women accuse Walliams of grooming
While most women say they were over the age of 18 during their interactions with Walliams, two say they were 15 when they first met him.
One woman told the Guardian and ITV News she met Walliams in 2004 at a fan event, when she was 15 and he was 32. He was starring in the hit BBC comedy series Little Britain at the time, and she hoped to one day be a comedy writer.
Matt Lucas, left, and Walliams, right — dressed as their characters Lou Todd and Andy Pipkin — signed copies of their comedy CD in January 2004. It was at such a fan event where one of Walliams' accusers says she first met him. (Steve Finn/Getty Images)
At the event, she says he called her "a very attractive lady" and wouldn't stop staring at her. She gave Walliams some scripts she'd written and her contact information, and after that, she says, he called her at home.
She claims he told her the scripts were very funny, and said they should stay in touch. During the call, she says her age was discussed several times.
As time went on, and communication continued, she says the conversation turned sexual, and Walliams asked for pictures of her naked. At the age of 17, she says her and Walliams had consensual sex.
Walliams told the Guardian and ITV News that he doesn't remember asking for such pictures, and that he believed she was 18 at the time they had sex.
Walliams won a Pride of Britain Award in 2006 as the Most Influential Public Figure, after raising money for the charity campaign Sports Relief by swimming across the English Channel. (Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Another woman also claims to have met Walliams when she was 15, after the two connected on the social network MySpace in 2007. She says they arranged a meet-up when she was in London where they kissed in an alleyway; she said he later touched her sexually at his house and then suggested they connect again when she turned 16.
Walliams denies having sexual contact with the second woman, and says he's never engaged in the grooming of young women.
Other women have also levelled claims that Walliams tried to take advantage of them at a vulnerable age.
Alleged harassment at HarperCollins and Britain's Got Talent
Walliams, who has sold more than 26 million children's books in the U.K. such as Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, was dropped by his publishing company HarperCollins in 2025. The company has since announced it will also no longer publish his back catalogue of books.
According to information obtained by the Guardian and ITV News, that action was taken because of concerns raised over the years, including allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a young female employee.
David Walliams has sold millions of copies of children's books through the publisher HarperCollins, which has since dropped him. (Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)
Walliams also made a name for himself as one of the judges for Britain's Got Talent from 2012 to 2022. There he was accused of inviting teenage girls to the show as guests, as well as harassing young women who worked on the show.
In November of 2022, Walliams was recorded saying disparaging and sexual comments toward contestants. He has since left the show.
All the while, Walliams and his alleged proclivity to date younger women was the butt of jokes among comedians in the U.K.
'I am not a sexual predator'
Walliams denies any wrongdoing. In a letter to journalists with the Guardian and ITV news who were working on the story, he wrote: "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."
"I realize 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."
Walliams had the opportunity to appeal the High Court's decision allowing the Guardian and ITV News to publish their findings, but Walliams and his legal team didn't file an appeal or request for more time to do so.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Philip Drost is a writer and editor for CBC Radio based in Fredericton. You can reach him at philip.drost@cbc.ca.
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