Walliams accused of preying on young women and girls; he denies it
David Walliams has been accused by multiple women of using his fame to pursue young women and teenagers for sex, in a three-year investigation by the Guardian and ITV News drawing on 30 first-hand sources, published after the High Court refused him an injunction. Two women say they met him at 15 and were groomed; others, aged 17 to 22 at the time, say he messaged them unprompted. Walliams, 55, said: “I am not a sexual predator. I have not broken the law.”
In a letter to the outlets he wrote: “Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with. And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something I never did.” His lawyers deny sexual contact with one of the two women who say they met him at 15, and say he believed the other was 18 when, she says, they had sex at 17; he also denies allegations of harassment and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, at Britain’s Got Talent and at his former publisher HarperCollins, where he had a relationship with a junior employee. Mr Justice Nicklin ruled the investigation “concerns matters of substantial public interest”, while recording that Walliams had twice attempted suicide after the allegations were put to him in May and remains in a psychiatric hospital; a judgment summary said some alleged conduct “could amount to criminal offences if proven”. No police investigation is reported. HarperCollins dropped him in 2025; ITV and the BGT producers say they received no complaints; the BBC is reviewing his material. Watch whether any complainant goes to police.