Comedian and Author David Walliams Accused of Sexual Harassment and Grooming

English comedian and author David Walliams has been accused of repeated instances of sexual harassment and grooming underage women for sex. The allegations against Walliams appear in a long-form article in The Guardian as well as in an hour-long news documentary on the British news channel ITV. Walliams, though not as well-known in the U.S., is a longtime staple of the U.K. comedy scene, best known for his long-running sketch series Little Britain with Matt Lucas and then later as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. He is also the author of a number of extremely successful children’s books. The Guardian’s report details several instances in which Walliams met underage women through fan events in the early 2000s and maintained relationships with them over phone and email, loosely promising to support their burgeoning arts careers, that eventually transpired into relationships that were sexual in nature. Several of the women who had backgrounds in modeling also detail instances in which Walliams sought out their information without their knowledge in order to contact them and solicit dates and sex. Though Walliams, through lawyers, denies any wrongdoing or knowing participation in sexual activity with someone under the age of 18, he self-identified as a “sex addict” in 2012 his autobiography Camp David.

The piece in The Guardian also describes several instances in which Walliams’s behavior crossed lines in the workplace. A handful of Britain’s Got Talent production staff members describe instances of discomfort and an impetus to warn younger, female coworkers about his behavior. “A male former BGT staff member says a 21-year-old female runner showed him messages in which Walliams was asking her out,” the article explains. Walliams also allegedly invited young guests backstage to his dressing room. During Walliams’s tenure at HarperCollins as a children’s book author, employees at the publishing company warned one other not to go to his house alone and that he had a pattern of asking young women at the company out. Through a lawyer, Walliams characterized this behavior as “hoping to meet someone to spend time with” in the aftermath of his divorce from Lara Stone in 2015. In 2017, he began a relationship with a then-intern at the company. In 2024, there was an inquiry into his behavior at the publisher, though no actions were taken against Walliams at that time. A female staffer, however, was given a five-figure payout and “signed a separation agreement with a strict non-disclosure clause.”

Rumors about Walliams’s behavior around women have dogged him for at least two decades. The Guardian’s report includes a joke from the 2004 British Comedy Awards ceremony in which host Jonathan Ross celebrates that the awards were turning 15 years old. “And like most 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable, and it’s probably going home with David Walliams,” he said at the time. Back in September, HarperCollins announced they would no longer publish books by Walliams, and the UK theme park Alton Towers announced on November 3 that they would permanently close the World of David Walliams. In the interim, TMZ reported several times on a “mystery celebrity” who fought against having his name released in connection with these stories or else risk self-harm or suicide. As of November 10, Walliams was dropped by his reps at the Independent Talent Group. In response to the litany of allegations, Walliams told ITV and The Guardian through lawyers: “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.”