'Why did I ever think it was "normal" for a 44-year-old male celeb to invite four girls aged 16-17 to his dressing room...?' Schoolgirl recalls weird, backstage Britain's Got Talent experience with David Walliams
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A woman who was invited by David Walliams into his dressing room while she was still a schoolgirl has taken to the internet to question the lack of safeguarding surrounding the experience.
In a now-viral post shared to Instagram, the then 17-year-old is seen taking selfies with three other young fans from inside Walliams’ Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) dressing room.
'Why did I ever think it was "normal" for a 44yr old male celebrity to invite four girls aged 16/17 into his dressing room without any adults present,' she wrote in the caption.
'Just his PA, who would bring refreshments once in a while. And the fact everyone at that TV production company would see it and say NOTHING.'
Another post showed a card Walliams had apparently sent her, featuring a photo of him with his son and signed 'David X'. In a caption, she shared: 'I also met his mum and sister.'
It's thought the schoolgirl was personally invited to BGT after Walliams privately messaged her on social media and then arranged for his PA to send her a pair of tickets.
The teenager was one of four young fans invited by Walliams to visit his BGT dressing room
The Instagram post included photos of a card apparently sent by Walliams, signed 'David X'
It's unclear exactly when the meeting took place – Walliams was a judge on the programme for a decade until he was fired in 2022 for making vile remarks about a contestant – but it's thought to have been some time around 2015 to 2017.
At around this time, Walliams was in the process of divorcing his wife, supermodel Lara Stone, and the woman added she had provided a shoulder to cry on for the middle-aged comic despite her young age.
She wrote: 'Another thing I wanna add. Yes I had his personal number. We would text quite a bit. This is also whilst he was going through his divorce with Lara.
'He would express his upset about the situation. I would COMFORT HIM. I WAS 18, COMFORTING A 45 YEAR OLD.'
And her account does appear to corroborate claims previously contested by Walliams that he had hosted unaccompanied young girls in his dressing room.
The claim was also made in The Guardian/ITV investigation into Walliams by Abby Tomlinson, who now works for the Labour Party but was then a 17-year-old Walliams fan.
Ms Tomlinson also said she attended BGT after getting private messages from Walliams – in 2015.
David Walliams at the 2004 Comedy Awards, when Jonathan Ross made a now infamous joke about him 'going home with 15-year-olds'
She took a 13-year-old girl friend with her as her 'plus one' to the show and when they arrived, they were shown backstage to Walliams' dressing room, where two other girls, 16 and 17, were waiting, she said.
Lawyers for Walliams disputed Ms Tomlinson's claim that she and other young girls had been left alone with Walliams without another adult present.
But Ms Tomlinson was adamant on this point, telling ITV: 'It was absolutely the case, the door was shut and we were alone with him.'
And she added: 'He's the sort of person who had obviously a lot of access to young women, teenage girls.'
It's unclear if the photos here show the same meeting Ms Tomlinson described – the two accounts appear to chime – or whether there was more than one episode of Walliams with girls and no chaperone.
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